If you've ever gotten a horrible tattoo in the past (I'm looking at you as I type, misbegotten Tasmanian Devil), you may soon have the best excuse for it ever: "I didn't know what to get, and it was time for my flu shot."
Soon tribal bands, tramp stamps and ubiquitous flaming skulls could serve as delivery mechanisms for vaccines, as researchers in Germany discovered that tattooing mice with vaccines produced 16 times more antibodies than conventional muscle injections. The scientists think that since a a vibrating tattoo needle produces greater tissue damage than a single needle, it provokes a stronger and faster immune response.
In the near future, tattoos could provide an excellent delivery method for therapeutic vaccines designed to prevent against all types of diseases, including specific types of cancer. Also, you can get that totally rad Ratt tattoo you've always been too shy to splurge on.
Continue reading 'Get some ink done, boost your immune system' >
Last time I checked, vaccines are supposed to prevent you from contracting the illness they're supposed to protect against — that's why I dutifully got my cootie shots every day at recess (never caught it either, depite the best efforts of icky girls). But Merck recently saw their HIV vaccine trials backfire in perhaps the worst way: Not only did they not work, they might make recipients more likely to contract HIV. Hoo boy...that had to be a rough briefing.
