Advances in Vaccine and Adjuvant Design for Emerging and Re-Emerging Viral Pathogens

Dear Colleagues,

The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the urgent need to accelerate the development of effective vaccines against emerging and re-emerging viral pathogens. In response, recent scientific and technological advances have driven the exploration of innovative vaccination strategies aimed at enhancing both humoral and cellular immune responses.

Contemporary vaccine design increasingly relies on recombinant viral antigens, either as single proteins or multimeric assemblies, engineered to focus immune responses on conserved epitopes. In parallel, structure-guided antigen design has emerged as a powerful approach to preserve immunogenic conformational epitopes and improve vaccine efficacy.

Virus-like particles (VLPs) have gained prominence due to their ability to maintain the native conformation of viral antigens while lacking infectious potential. Similarly, recombinant viral vector platforms have been extensively investigated for their capacity to elicit robust humoral and T cell-mediated immune responses.

More recently, mRNA-based vaccines have transformed the vaccine landscape by enabling the direct delivery of genetic information into the cytoplasm, bypassing the need for nuclear entry and allowing rapid antigen expression by host ribosomes. These platforms incorporate diverse delivery systems, including lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), functionalized nanoparticles, and chemical conjugation strategies, which further optimize stability, delivery efficiency, and immunogenicity.

Advances in adjuvant technology have also played a critical role in improving vaccine performance. Modern adjuvant systems enhance immune responses through multiple mechanisms, including optimization of antigen presentation, activation of innate immune signaling pathways, and stimulation of T cell responses. In addition, alternative routes of immunization and the incorporation of medical devices to improve antigen delivery have been shown to further enhance vaccine immunogenicity.

Finally, emerging strategies to overcome immune imprinting, such as immunofocusing, are being developed to design immunogens capable of redirecting humoral immune responses toward selected protective epitopes while minimizing responses to non-desirable or immunodominant regions.

In this Special Issue, we present a collection of cutting-edge research articles and comprehensive reviews that highlight transformative advances in vaccine and adjuvant design. These contributions integrate next-generation technologies with established vaccine platforms, explore novel molecular targets, and redefine immunization strategies aimed at confronting current and future viral threats, ultimately accelerating the development of more effective and durable vaccines.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Martha Pedraza-Escalona
Dr. Sonia Mayra Pérez Tapia
Dr. Gabriela Mellado-Sanchez
Guest Editors

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• adjuvant technology
• emerging and re-emerging viral pathogens
• immune imprinting
• lipid mRNA-based vaccines
• recombinant viral antigens
• vaccine design
• virus-like particles