A team of researchers from Stanford University and the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases NIAID conducted two studies that led to a discovery: the skin possesses its own immune system capable of producing its own antibodies.
As noted in the two studies published in the journal Nature, this could be useful for the development of innovative vaccines to be administered via an ointment, to be applied to the skin. In the first study conducted in the laboratory, researchers led by Inta Gribonika of NIAID found that the bacterium Staphylococcus epidermidis, which is harmless and commonly spread on the epidermis, triggers the activation of B cells that result in the production of antibodies. During testing, the study authors could see that the skin, therefore, produces immune defenses even against harmless bacteria, which persist for at least two hundred days.
In the second research, the Stanford team coordinated by Michael Fischbach focused their study on an analysis of what mechanisms in the skin make it possible to redirect the immune response triggered by the harmless bacterium S. epidermidis toward more dangerous microbes. To test this hypothesis, the researchers modified the bacterium so that it produced foreign proteins. Then by applying it to the skin, they were able to provoke an immune response in mice.
According to the researchers then, the modified S. epidermidis bacterium could be added to skin ointments to activate the immune defense process in a new type of vaccines. The new method of administration could make them particularly useful in regions of the world where there is a shortage of medical personnel to handle the administration.
