UK scientists have taken the first steps towards creating new vaccine treatments in pill form.The Cardiff team has made a prototype oral flu vaccine, which unlike standard inoculations does not need to be stored in a fridge or freezer. They hope it could pave the way for needle-free inoculations for lots of different diseases that would be easier to use in developing countries.
Traditional biological vaccines work by introducing a safe form of a virus or bacteria - or a harmless part of it, such as a peptide - in order to provoke an immune response in the body.This allows the body to recognize an illness, such as flu, and deal with it more effectively should it ever encounter it for real. But the difficulty with these biological vaccines is that they need to be frozen or refrigerated throughout transport to keep them stable, making them costly and difficult to deliver in countries…
