title: Ambiguities in the preclinical quality assessment of microparticulate vaccines.
abstract: Vaccination techniques do not always stimulate immunity because of the inappropriate mobilization of immune responses, and the frequency of vaccinations required is impractical in many developing countries. Such limitations have spurred the development of new vaccine-delivery approaches. Microparticles made of poly(lactide-co-glycolide) can induce adaptive immunity after a single administration of a vaccine. However, the preclinical assessment of such vaccines is not standardized, making it difficult to compare pharmaceutical with immunological data. The relevance of and the ambiguity in the assessment of microparticulate vaccines with respect to the current knowledge on immunity are discussed, in addition to the application of this knowledge to rational vaccine design.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, ETH Zürich, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland. johansen@pharma.ethz.ch
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Johansen
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gander
authors.forename: H P
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Merkle
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sesardic
mesh_terms: D000941:Antigens / Q000378:metabolism; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004337:Drug Carriers; D004339:Drug Compounding; D015195:Drug Design; D004341:Drug Evaluation / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008863:Microspheres; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000276:immunology; D014612:Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000276:immunology / Q000592:standards*
chemical_list: D000941:Antigens; D004337:Drug Carriers; D014612:Vaccines