title: Bioengineering towards self-assembly of particulate vaccines.
abstract: There is an unmet demand for safe and efficient vaccines for prevention of various infectious diseases. Subunit vaccines comprise selected pathogen specific antigens are a safe alternative to whole organism vaccines. However they often lack immunogenicity. Natural and synthetic self-assembling polymers and proteins will be reviewed in view their use to encapsulate and/or display antigens to serve as immunogenic antigen carriers for induction of protective immunity. Recent advances made in in vivo assembly of antigen-displaying polyester inclusions will be a focus. Particulate vaccines are inherently immunogenic due to enhanced uptake by antigen presenting cells which process antigens mediating adaptive immune responses. Bioengineering approaches enable the design of tailor-made particulate vaccines to fine tune immune responses towards protective immunity.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand. Electronic address: b.rehm@massey.ac.nz.
authors.forename: Bernd H A
authors.initials: BHA
authors.lastname: Rehm
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000941:Antigens / Q000276:immunology; D057005:Bioengineering / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D058105:Polymerization; D011108:Polymers / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000378:metabolism*; D014612:Vaccines / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000276:immunology; D022223:Vaccines, Subunit / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000378:metabolism; D014771:Virion / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000941:Antigens; D011108:Polymers; D014612:Vaccines; D022223:Vaccines, Subunit