Tattoo a Good Vehicle for DNA Vaccines

A tattoo can be more than just a personal statement, it can be a vehicle to deliver DNA vaccines, researchers in Germany found.

Study leader Martin Muller and his team at the German Cancer Research Center, in Heidelberg said tattooing is an invasive procedure done with a solid vibrating needle, causing a wound and sufficient inflammation to prime the immune system. It also covers a bigger area of the skin than an injection, so the DNA vaccine can enter more cells.

The researchers used a coat protein from the human papillomavirus — the cause of cervical cancer — as a model DNA vaccine antigen and compared it with standard intramuscular injection.

The tattoo method gave a stronger humoral, or antibody, response and cellular response than intramuscular injection, the study said.

Delivery of DNA via tattooing could be a way for a more widespread commercial application of DNA vaccines, Muller said in a statement.

The findings are published in the journal Genetic Vaccines and Therapy.