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Dental floss could eventually do much more than improve oral hygiene.
A new study led by Texas Tech University and the University of North Carolina suggests that the thin filament could eventually double as a vaccine mechanism.
In animal models, the researchers showed that dental floss can effectively release vaccines through the tissue between the teeth and gums, according to a press release.
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In the study, the flossing technique triggered the production of antibodies in “mucosal surfaces,” such as the lining of the nose and lungs, the release stated.
The findings were published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering.
“Mucosal surfaces are important, because they are a source of entry for pathogens, such as influenza and COVID,” said co-author Harvinder Singh Gill, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at North Carolina State University, in the release.
With the traditional method of injecting vaccines, the antibodies are primarily produced in the bloodstream, he noted.
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“But we know that when a vaccine is given via the mucosal surface, antibodies are stimulated not only in the bloodstream, but also on mucosal surfaces,” said Gill.
“This improves the body’s ability to prevent infection, because there is an additional line of antibody defense before a pathogen enters the body.”
The vaccine enters through the “junctional epithelium,” which is a thin layer of tissue in the deep pocket between the tooth and the gum.
This tissue doesn’t have the same barrier as other tissue linings, which means it can release immune cells into the body.
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In the study, the researchers added a peptide flu vaccine to unwaxed dental floss before flossing the teeth of lab mice, according to the release.
Next, they compared the effectiveness of the floss-delivered vaccine to techniques that delivered it nasally or orally.
“It would be easy to administer, and it addresses concerns many people have about being vaccinated with needles.”
“We found that applying vaccine via the junctional epithelium produces a far superior antibody response on mucosal surfaces than the current gold standard for vaccinating via the oral cavity, which involves placing vaccine under the tongue,” said first author Rohan Ingrole, a Ph.D. student at Texas Tech University.
“The flossing technique also provides comparable protection against the flu virus as compared to the vaccine being given via the nasal epithelium.”
In addition to flu, the test was repeated for three other vaccine types: proteins, inactivated viruses and mRNA.
For all types, the flossing technique produced “robust antibody responses in the bloodstream and across mucosal surfaces,” the release stated.
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Next, the research team aims to test the effectiveness of vaccine delivery to the epithelial junction in humans through the use of floss picks, which are easier to hold.
“It would be easy to administer, and it addresses concerns many people have about being vaccinated with needles,” Gill said. “And we think this technique should be comparable in price to other vaccine delivery techniques.”
Hua Wang, assistant professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois’ Grainger College of Engineering, was not involved in the study but shared his reaction to the findings.
“This study presents a promising floss-based vaccination method that can avoid needle injection or any potentially painful procedure,” he told Fox News Digital.
“The authors demonstrated that vaccine components in the floss coating can penetrate the junctional epithelium in gingival sulcus and reach the underlying tissues, leading to systemic antibody responses.”
The floss-based vaccination method could help to improve patient compliance if it goes through the full evaluation process, he noted.
Limitations and future research
There are some limitations and drawbacks associated with floss-based vaccines, the researchers acknowledged.
Babies and toddlers who don’t have teeth yet wouldn’t be candidates for the technique, for example.
“In addition, we would need to know more about how or whether this approach would work for people who have gum disease or other oral infections,” Gill added.
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Wang agreed that many questions remain to be answered about this experimental vaccination method.
“In addition to the unclear impact of gingival tissue infection on vaccination, the local and systemic side effects of this vaccination method remain to be understood,” he told Fox News Digital.
“For example, vaccination at the gingival tissue may initiate local inflammation that eventually induces undesirable side effects.”
It’s also not yet clear what exact path the vaccine components follow when traveling from the tooth site to the tissues or how the immune responses are generated, Wang noted.
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“Lastly, from the translation perspective, the efficacy of floss-based vaccines would need to be comparable to conventional needle-based vaccines.”
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and by funds from the Whitacre Endowed Chair in Science and Engineering at Texas Tech University.
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