Pandey, K.K.; Sahoo, B.R.; Pattnaik, A.K. Protein Nanoparticles as Vaccine Platforms for Human and Zoonotic Viruses. Viruses2024, 16, 936.
Pandey, K.K.; Sahoo, B.R.; Pattnaik, A.K. Protein Nanoparticles as Vaccine Platforms for Human and Zoonotic Viruses. Viruses 2024, 16, 936.
Pandey, K.K.; Sahoo, B.R.; Pattnaik, A.K. Protein Nanoparticles as Vaccine Platforms for Human and Zoonotic Viruses. Viruses2024, 16, 936.
Pandey, K.K.; Sahoo, B.R.; Pattnaik, A.K. Protein Nanoparticles as Vaccine Platforms for Human and Zoonotic Viruses. Viruses 2024, 16, 936.
Abstract
Vaccines are one of the most effective medical interventions, playing a pivotal role in treating infectious diseases. Although traditional vaccines comprising of killed, inactivated, or live attenuated pathogens have resulted in protective immune responses, negative consequences of their administration have been well-appreciated. Modern vaccines have evolved to contain purified antigenic proteins, epitopes, or antigen-encoding mRNAs, rendering them relatively safe. However, reduced humoral and cellular responses pose major challenges to modern vaccine platforms. Protein nanoparticle (PNP)-based vaccines have garnered substantial interest in recent years for their ability to present repetitive array of antigens for improving immunogenicity and enhancing protective responses. Discovery and characterization of naturally occurring PNPs from various living organisms such as bacteria, archaea, viruses, insects, and eukaryotes, as well as computationally designed structures and approaches to link antigens to the PNPs have paved the way for unprecedented advances in the field of vaccine technology. In this review, we focus on some of the widely used naturally occurring and optimally designed PNPs for their suitability as promising vaccine platforms for displaying native-like antigens from viral pathogens for protective immune responses. Such platforms hold great promise in combating emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases and enhancing vaccine efficacy and safety.
Keywords
Protein nanoparticles; Viral vaccines; Ferritin; Lumazine synthase; Encapsulin; Computationally designed nanoparticles
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Virology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.