New research presented at the Society for General Microbiology's Spring Conference shows that combining traditional vaccines with the immune chemical interleukin-12 (IL-12) can create nasal vaccines that are as effective as shots and better protect the respiratory tract. Science Daily explains that IL-12 is a cytokine which stimulates the immune system by interacting with other immune chemicals and white blood cells. By combining the cytokine with existing vaccines, researchers were able to prevent mice from certain diseases, including influenza, pneumococcal bacteria and Yersinia pestis--better known as plague. FierceVaccines report