Protection against tetanus by needle-free inoculation of adenovirus-vectored nasal and epicutaneous vaccines

The effectiveness of vaccination programs would be enhanced greatly through the availability of vaccines that can be administered simply and, preferab ly, painlessly without the need for timed booster injections. Tetanus is a prime example of a disease that is readily preventable by vaccination but r emains a major threat to public health due to the problems associated with administration of the present vaccine. Here Nye show that a protective immu ne response against live Clostridium tetani infection in mice can be elicit ed by an adenovirus vector encoding the tetanus toxin C fragment when admin istered as a nasal or epicutaneous vaccine. The results suggest that these vaccination modalities would be effective needle-free alternatives. This Is the first demonstration that absorption of a small number of vectored vacc ines into the skin following topical application of a patch can provide pro tection against live bacteria in a disease setting.