Future vaccines may be delivered via dental floss, following a study in the United States.
Researchers at North Carolina State University have used floss to introduce vaccine to gum tissue between the teeth in animals.
Study author Harvinder Singh Gill said testing found the new technique stimulated the production of antibodies in mucosal surfaces, such as the lining of the nose and lungs.
“Mucosal surfaces are important, because they are a source of entry for pathogens, such as influenza and COVID,” Professor Gill said.
He said if a vaccine was given by injection antibodies were primarily produced in the bloodstream throughout the body and relatively few antibodies were produced on mucosal surfaces.
“But we know that when a vaccine is given via the mucosal surface, antibodies are stimulated not only in the bloodstream, but also on mucosal surfaces.
“This improves the body’s ability to prevent infection, because there is an additional line of antibody defense before a pathogen enters the body.”
Study co-author Rohan Ingrole said while regular floss served as an adequate vaccine delivery method for lab mice, the researchers knew it was not practical to ask people to hold vaccine-coated floss in their fingers.
Ms Ingrole said to address that challenge they used a floss pick, which was a piece of floss stretched between two prongs that could be held by a handle.
To test the process, she said researchers coated the floss in floss picks with fluorescent food dye and asked the human study participants to try to deposit the food dye on the gum between their teeth with a floss pick.
“We found that approximately 60 percent of the dye was deposited in the gum pocket, which suggests that floss picks may be a practical vaccine delivery method.”
Read the full study: Floss-based vaccination targets the gingival sulcus for mucosal and systemic immunization.
