Injectable, 3D vaccines may fight cancer and infectious diseases

Scientists may have found a way to create injectable, 3D vaccines that could help fight cancer. They’ve shown a non-surgical injection of programmable biomaterial that spontaneously assembles in vivo into a 3D structure that has the potential to prevent cancer and fight off infectious diseases, such as HIV. The 3D structures are tiny biodegradable rod-like structures made from silica, called mesoporous silica rods (MSRs). These rods can be loaded with biological and chemical drug components and then delivered by needle just underneath the skin. The rods spontaneously assemble at the vaccination site to form a three-dimensional scaffold, like pouring a box of matchsticks into a pile on the table. The porous spaces are large enough to recruit and fill up with dendritic cells, which monitor the body and trigger and immune response when diseases are detected. “Nano-sized mesoporous silica particles have already been established as useful for manipulating individual cells from the...