A study led by Texas Tech University and the University of North Carolina (NC) suggests that dental floss could eventually double as a vaccine mechanism. In animal models, the researchers found that the filament can effectively release vaccines through the tissue between the teeth and gums. "We expect the approach to work with COVID vaccine that uses mRNA, hepatitis and tetanus since they use subunit proteins as antigens, and other vaccines that use inactivated or attenuated viruses as antigens (such as MMR vaccine)," paper author and NC State nanomedicine professor Harvinder Singh Gill told Newsweek.