A Device for the Targeting Delivery of Particulate DNA Vaccines

A unique biomedical device, the hand-held powdered injection system (biolistics), is proposed for the targeting delivery of DNA vaccines. The underlying principle is to harness energy of high-pressure helium to accelerate a pre-measured dose of DNA vaccine coated in microgold particles to an appropriate momentum in order to penetrate the outer layer of the skin or mucosal tissue to achieve a biological effect. The novelty of this hand-held biolistics, using the venturi effect to entrain micron-sized vaccines into an established quasi-steady Supersonic Jet Flow (QSSJF) and accelerate them towards the target. In this paper, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is utilized to characterize of prototype biolistic system. The key features of the gas dynamics and gas-particle interaction are presented. The overall capability of the biolistic system to deliver the particles is discussed. The statistic analyses show the particle impact velocity is achieved 745 m s-1 for representative gold particles.