The great scientific success of the corona pandemic was that the vaccine came so quickly.
However, it is still slow to get vaccines to large numbers of people.
The method of giving vaccine in a syringe is both clumsy and cumbersome.
In any case, that is the opinion of the professor of immunology, Nils Lycke, who is working on developing a new type of spray vaccine.
Syringes must be given by healthcare professionals.
Syringes can carry other diseases and in addition, the immune cells you want to reach with the vaccine are not in the muscle where you put the syringe.
The mucous membrane an important defense
The vaccine that Nils Lycke works with is instead directed directly at the mucous membrane in the nose.
There are the important dentritic cells that alert about virus attacks and trigger the immune system.
The vaccine is based on mRNA technology, ie the same technology as Pfizer and Moderna.
This means that the vaccine contains the code that the body uses to produce an immune response.
Fewer side effects
- The advantage of our vaccine is that it goes directly to the immune system cells in the mucous membrane.
In this way, we get a faster immune response and fewer side effects, says Professor Nils Lycke.
The same method may also be used on vaccines against other viruses in the future.
If we are to succeed in vaccinating large parts of the world, it must not be as cumbersome as it was during this pandemic, says Professor Nils Lycke.
The world of science "How to stop the next pandemic" can be seen on SVT play on Sunday 20 March and on SVT 2 on Monday 20:00.