Scientists use tattoo needle to deliver HPV vaccine

Tattoos cause more pain than ordinary shots, Martin Müller admits. But because tattoo needles cause more cellular damage, they also create more surface area for vaccines to seep in.

Tattoos are far more effective at generating antibodies than the old needle-and-plunger, Müller reports in the journal, Genetic Vaccines and Therapy.

The journal’s editors suggest the tattoo will work best for routine cattle vaccinations, and the injection of therapeutic DNA vaccines (i.e., the direct injection of genes) into humans.

But the tattoos might also help public health officials sort the vaccinated from the potentially contagious in a pandemic.

Physicians already consider certain scars to be proof of vaccination.

Müller specializes in vaccines against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, which causes cervical cancer.

Some governments and pharmaceutical companies want to make the HPV vaccine mandatory for all children–girls, and boys.

A vaccine tattoo that says, in effect, “I’m clean,” could also change the way humans choose their sexual partners.

More about Müller’s experiments, at the German Cancer Research Center:

Research Group Tumorvirus-Specific Vaccination Strategies
Almost one-fifth of tumor diseases are associated with viral and bacterial pathogens. Cancer of the cervix is among these. At half a million new cases each year, cervical cancer is the second most common cause of cancer-related disease among women. The leading risk factor for cervical cancer is infection with the human papilloma virus HPV. The goal of our working group is to develop vaccines preventing such viral infections as well as to scrutinize existing strategies for their effectiveness. In doing so, we are focusing on immune-therapeutic problems. Presently we are pursuing various approaches to develop a vaccine against HPV.

– Mark Baard