ANN ARBOR, Mich., Feb. 27 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists reported a new vaccinating technique involving nanoemulsions made up of 200-nanometer droplets is showing increasing promise.
University of Michigan researchers said the high-energy, oil-in-water emulsions used against a variety of infectious are placed in a person's nose, rather than injected with a needle. Two new University of Michigan studies show the nanoemulsions produce a strong immune response against smallpox and the human immunodeficiency virus.
Nanoemulsion vaccines -- developed at the Michigan Nanotechnology Institute for Medicine and the Biological Sciences -- are a mixture of soybean oil, alcohol, water and detergents emulsified into ultra-small particles. They are combined with part or all of a disease-causing microbe to trigger the body's immune response.
"The two studies show the nanoemulsion platform is capable of developing vaccines from very diverse materials," said Dr. James Baker Jr., a professor of internal medicine. "We used whole virus in the smallpox vaccine. In the HIV vaccine, we used a single protein. We were able to promote an immune response using either source."
The latest research results appear in the journal Clinical Vaccine Immunology.
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