Gold and Helium Combine for Needle-Free Injections

Mr. Jaggers writes "U.K. biotech outfit, PowderMed Ltd., has developed a new method to deliver vaccine using an injector powered by concentrated helium gas. They enclose fragments of virus DNA in tiny gold particles, and use the injector to introduce particles into the body subdermally. Evidently, this has been in the works for some time, but is now ready for human clinical tests. Oh, and this is supposed to be used experimentally to target the H5N1 avian flu, which is also cool, I suppose."

Comments

OOooOOOOoo

[DarkNemesis618]

The hypospray, quickly doctor!

Reminiscent of Star Trek?

Re:OOooOOOOoo

[Shambhu]

Jet injectors are fairly commonplace. My dad said they used them on new recruits in Basic, back in the day. He said it was a big thing that you had to lean in to and had a strong kick. Military issue. What's special here is the virus itself, I guess. Maybe use gold particles to carry it and using helium to power it is also new. I don't know.

Maybe I'm to cynical

[Lord Kano]

Should we test this on vaccines that we know the side effect for?

I mean, we know what the side effects of the polio vaccination are so maybe that's a better trial for this. It would be truly awful if we created a SuperFlu by playing around with this.

LK

Re:Maybe I'm to cynical

[eln]

As others have mentioned, this is not particularly new tech. I'd imagine linking it to the avian flu is just a way to get more exposure, and therefore more grant money, by exploiting the health scare of the moment.

Re:Gold?

[CRCulver]

The amount of gold we're talking about probably isn't any more than what's in a bottle of Goldschlager, and that only costs a few bucks.

Typo in previous subject.

[Lord Kano]

I mean "too" instead of "to".

LK

More practitioners

[andrewman327]

I am an EMT but I am not allowed to perform IVs in the field. Only paramedics are allowed to do that (more training). I am licensed to perform intramuscular injections, however (think EpiPen) and I would be allowed to use one of these. The point? If there were ever a need for rapid vacinations, more people would be able to administer using this technology.

Re:More practitioners

[anoopsinha]

I do not think there are any vaccines that are given intra-venously, anyway. Most vaccines that I know know of are given by the intra-muscular route, and some by the sub-cutaneous and intra-dermal route. So administering any vaccine should well be within your field of expertise as an EMT.

Re:More practitioners

[Kadin2048]

I don't really think this is going to change anything. The injections that this is replacing are mostly intra-muscular, so (assuming they're in your protocols) you could do them right now.

The reason Paramedics drop lines is less to introduce drugs but to add fluid volume, saline or blood. You can't do that intramuscularly, or without a needle. Once you have the line inserted as a way of adding volume, it's an easy way to give drugs (and there are admittedly drugs that are intended for intravascular use instead of IM), but a needle-less IM system wouldn't replace most IV insertions.

Unless you could find some way to continuously pump fluids into a vein without a catheter in place to keep it open, but I don't think anyone has proposed a needleless sytem that does that.

What next? Discovering Polio vaccine?

[megaditto]

This 'new method' is some 20+ years old.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_gun

I'd tell the submitter where to shove such 'new methods', but it appears that has already been done:

Chen et al. Immunity obtained by gene-gun inoculation of a rotavirus DNA vaccine to the abdominal epidermis or anorectal epithelium.Vaccine. 1999 Aug 6;17(23-24):3171-6

I wonder if its painful?

[allaunjsilverfox2]

If not couldn't it be used for diabetics? Or others that need constanst injections?

Re:I wonder if its painful?

[jfsather]

Since you asked...

Injector pens like this have existed for over 15 years. I currently use a MediJector Vision. Once you've purchased the injector pen, there is an additional cost for the adaptors to go on the insulin vials. You end up using about 10% less insulin per shot. I had one of the first ones produced back in 1990 and haven't had to do a needle injection since then. It feels like a quick pinch.

My shots aren't coated in gold, though.

Google just gives me shopping links, but you can find more details at places like drugstore.com. Even though I use them, I won't pimp them here. This is the type of thing that most local drugstores don't carry, so online is about the only way to get them.

-J

Re:Influenza is an Orthomyxovirus

[megaditto]

Need to use DNA because RNA is unstable. RNA and DNA are interconvertible, but the naked RNA molecule will be chopped up and eaten by the cell. Even if it didn't, it would also need (at least) a reverse transcriptase, (an RNA-dependant DNA polymerase enzyme) to go from RNA->DNA before the cell can start making viral proteins.

Since RNA has absolutely no chance for to survive or integrate without the viral enzymes, so gene-guns have to use DNA.

Hell yes - the military uses something like this

[r00t]

These guys have added "gold" and "helium" to make things sound cool, but the tech is old.

It hurts like Hell. It leaves a blister or welt, if you are lucky.

Don't flinch. If you move, the device cuts a slot. You need stiches. Then they try again. Remember, don't flinch.

Such devices are being eliminated. Back splatter (tiny droplets of blood) creates a risk of disease transmission. It's also not nice how the device tends to drive skin bacteria into you, more so than a needle would.

Old Trick

[teratogenicbenzene]

This is just a new spin on an old trick. Geneticists have been using tiny gold pellets coated in DNA in so-called "gene guns" for a long time. They're mainly used to transform plant cells, as these cells have tough cell walls.

Using them on the human cells is a logical step, but applicability is going to be rather narrow.

Re:Air bubbles?

[bobscealy]

Air bubbles in the blood stream arent that much of a big deal, you need to have quite a bit before it is a problem. I had 4 months of chemotherapy a year back and when they are changing lines etc I was shocked at the amount of air that went in, the nurse said lots of people freak out. The wierd thing is you can feel the air going in, which is a bit spooky.

Re:Gold?

[Ohreally_factor]

SCENE 23, DAY INT., DIGISHAMAN HOUSE HALLWAY

Mom: What's the hold up? Why aren't you kids ready for school?

Kids: DigiShaman is hogging the bathroom again. Panning for gold.

DigiShaman [muffled, behind door]: Eureka!!

Re:Hell yes - the military uses something like thi

[Zemran]

Several years ago I had a shower of sparks from a grinding machine hit me in the face and I had fine pieces of metal in my skin and eyes. Skin does not matter as the skin will force the metal out itself, but they felt that it was important to get the metal out of my eyes and the pain made me agree. I had to sit still on the wrong end of a sort of magnifying glass while they used hypodermic needles to hook the bits of metal out. As with all eye surgery it is important to remain consious. I could see each needle going into my eye and I could feel the click as they hooked each piece of metal out.

Even worse though, was a friend that was in a car wreck and they took his eyes out, again fully concious, to remove pieces of windscreen. He told me that it was very strange to be looking at his own chest like that while his eyeballs were on his cheeks.

Re:Air bubbles?

[A Commentor]

How do they avoid getting air bubbles into the patient's bloodstream?

Because it's no where near the blood stream. This one is subdermal (just under the skin) not into a vein. For the vein, it would be an IV.

Re:Gold?

[n0dalus]

The amount of gold we're talking about probably isn't any more than what's in a bottle of Goldschlager

How Much is inside a bottle of Goldschlager (Work safe).

Re:Hell yes - the military uses something like thi

[tomhudson]

... and if he hadn't posted thw windscreen part, he would have had a lot of people going.

hint for the next time - magnets work better.

Re:Hell yes - the military uses something like thi

[kjdames]

How would he be able to see if his eyes were outside his skull? I thought the eyeball required light to only enter from the front in order to work. That's why true invisibility would not work - you'd be blind.