Vaccines can be delivered through the skin using ultrasound. This method doesn’t damage the skin and eliminates the need for painful needles. To create a needle-free vaccine, Darcy Dunn-Lawless at the University of Oxford and his colleagues mixed vaccine molecules with tiny, cup-shaped proteins. They then applied liquid mixture to the skin of mice and exposed it to ultrasound – like that used for sonograms – for about a minute and a half.

    • Noerttipertti@sopuli.xyz
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      11 months ago

      Miniatyrize ultrasound part, make it communicare with those glucose sensors that are placed on shoulder, make it portable enough and Presto! Artificial pancreas.

    • AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      I’m dumb…what does being diabetic have to do with inability to get needle vaccines? I’m seriously asking.

      • Dadbod89@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        There’s type 1 and 2 diabetes. I believe type 2 requires you to regularly prick your fingers to test your blood sugar levels several times a day while type 1 requires mandatory insulin shots into your stomach a few times a day. Basically a diabetic fuckin hates needles for good reason and to be able to do that with ultrasound would be rad.

      • MrShankles@reddthat.com
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        11 months ago

        It could be that if vaccines can be attached to a “cup-like protein” and given through the skin, than maybe insulin could too. Just less needle sticks overall

      • kurwa@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        People who don’t like needles? Or do you mean institutions?

        • PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works
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          11 months ago

          I’m sure there are some people that would help, but I went from blood draws making me nearly pass out to self injecting meth(otrexate) once a week after my RA diagnosis.

          • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
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            11 months ago

            A blood draw ruins my week (not exaggerated). If I were diagnosed with diabetes I would end up dead. For me, anything that avoids a needle is worth it.

            • PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works
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              11 months ago

              Exactly. For you it’d likely be worth it. For people like me it’d be a waste - the answer was to nut up. I also require hour-long transfusions every two months. I’m not sure they could do anything but maybe put you under anesthesia for something like that.

              • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
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                11 months ago

                Yeah, I really can’t imagine. My wife (who works in the medical field) tried to help me “get used to” needles and I didn’t make a single lick of progress. With my kind of issue, it’s common that the issue gets worse and not better if you get shots more often. Something about my subconscious forming a feedback loop with my reactions to create worse reactions over time. I didn’t stop breathing from shots when the symptoms started when I was 8 or 9, just got dizzy/lightheaded and passed out.

                • PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works
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                  11 months ago

                  That sounds insanely distressing. I won’t recount my bad experiences. None of them were harmful, but some nurses aren’t as gentle as others.

                  • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
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                    11 months ago

                    Yeah. I half-mentioned it elsewhere. I was in an ER and needed to have blood drawn. I was just barely staying conscious by leaning back with an ice pack, but they needed the room so a nurse came in and said “yeah you’re fine” and lugged me from the blood-draw chair into a wheelchair. My wife wanted to hit her (lol) but it took the 2 of them to keep me from hitting the floor instead of the wheelchair because I started to black out from suddenly standing.

                    Some nurses are idiots.