Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The proposed research project aims to develop a microneedle-based technology for efficient underwater fish vaccine delivery. Fish disease is the leading cause of fish loss in aquaculture. Effective vaccination at an early stage is essential in preventing diseases to secure the aquacultural food supply. Among all the vaccine administration routes, intramuscular injection is the most effective method. However, it is labor-intensive, requires fish sedation, and poses safety hazards for farm workers. To overcome these challenges, microneedle technology using food-grade biomaterials will be developed to deliver vaccines underwater, especially to young fish. Microneedles loaded with vaccines will be deployed underwater to release the cargo into fish skin and muscular tissues to provide immunological protection. The success of this project can provide a vaccination methodthat can be automated to relieve workload, deliver valuable vaccines precisely, and avoid needlewaste with biodegradable materials.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
40%
Applied
40%
Developmental
20%
Goals / Objectives
Thegoal of this proposed project is to develop a biopolymer-based microneedle technology for effective fish vaccine delivery in marine environments that can be deployed at low cost and in an automated manner.In the proposed work, I will leverage current microneedle technology for controlled drug release in mammals and plants and aim to develop a new material platform that is engineered to operate in marine environments. 1) Food-graded materials will be used to construct microneedles that can maintain their mechanical integrity and strength even after being immersed in the aquaculture environment for an extended duration of time. 2) Vaccines will be loaded into the microneedles and the biological activities will be tested after being stored in ambient conditions and immersed in water. 3) The release profile of the vaccine will be measured to validate negligible premature release before injection and to characterize the release profile after injection. 4) Experiments using fish tissue and/or live fish (model fish-zebrafish, or commercially relevant fish-rainbow trout) will be conducted to test the microneedle attachment during fish swimming, fish health after microneedle injection, the successful release of the vaccine. 5) Ultimately, the immunological response from the vaccination will be measured, and the pathogen challenge will be used to validate the protection.
Project Methods
Methods:Design and fabricate microneedles using additive manufacturing and molding.DNA vaccine extraction, purification, and quantificationMaterial characterization, mechanical test, and imagingIn vitro and in vivo test of microneedle administrationFish vaccination with positive control groups vaccinated by standardintramuscular injection and negative control groups vaccinatedusing microneedlesloadedwith vaccine-absent bufferHistology, blood sampling to measure antibody and inflammation biomarkersPathogen challenge after immunizationEvaluation:The success of waterproofing will be assessed by visualization and compression tests. Aminimum of 1 N for the maximum force reached without microneedle breaking is required to be enough to penetrate fish skin.Loading of DNA or inactivated bacteria vaccinewill be confirmed visually. Successful preservation of the vaccine would be marked by a steady amount of detected DNA at different time points compared to time zero.The release profile will be measured by sampling the release medium at different time points.Measure the success rate offish skinpenetration and theattachment duration during fish swimming. The attachment should last for a long enough durationmeasured from the release profile to achieve the release of the desired amount ofvaccine.Microneedles with fluorescent dye-labeled payload will be used to visualize microneedle skin penetration by histology.Neutralizing antibody titers and biomarkers for inflammatory responseswill be measuredfromfish blood after vaccination.Thesurvival rate of vaccinated fish 400degree days after the challenge will be the criteria to determine if the vaccine has been successfully delivered to provide protection.Efforts:The outcomes of this work will be communicated through peer-reviewed publications, conference and seminar presentations, field trips, and outreach events.