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Vaccines
Special Issues
Synthetic Vaccines
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Synthetic Vaccines

A special issue of Vaccines (ISSN 2076-393X). This special issue belongs to the section "Vaccine Adjuvants".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2024) | Viewed by 849

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Bret D. Ulery

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
Interests: biomaterials; immunology; regenerative medicine

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Synthetic vaccines are immunization systems comprised of biomolecular sub-units (i.e., nucleic acids, proteins, carbohydrates, and/or lipids) capable of replicating the immunogenic aspects of pathogens without the inclusion of deleterious components. The move away from whole-killed and attenuated vaccine approaches towards synthetic vaccines has been in progress for the past couple of decades, culminating in the use of nucleic acid-based vaccines to protect against SARS-CoV-2. Reaching this pivot point, the vaccination community is now ready to expedite the research and commercialization of a wide variety of synthetic vaccines to protect against a wide swath of pathogenic agents. This Special Issue focuses on highlighting the excellent work being conducted in this community by emerging and established researchers.

Dr. Bret D. Ulery
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Vaccines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • vaccines
  • biomolecules
  • biomaterials
  • drug delivery
  • immunology

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

20 pages, 4272 KiB  
Article
Adjuvant Templating Improves On-Target/Off-Target Antibody Ratio Better than Linker Addition for M2-Derived Peptide Amphiphile Micelle Vaccines
by Megan C. Schulte, Adam C. Boll, Natalie L. Conomos, Farnoushsadat Rezaei, Agustin T. Barcellona, Adam G. Schrum and Bret D. Ulery
Vaccines 2025, 13(4), 422; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines13040422 - 17 Apr 2025
Viewed by 297
Abstract
Background: Peptide amphiphile micelles (PAMs) are a promising lipid-based nanotechnology currently in development for a variety of applications ranging from atherosclerosis to cancer therapy. Especially relevant for immune applications, PAMs improve trafficking through lymphatic vessels, enhance uptake by antigen-presenting cells, and inhibit the [...] Read more.
Background: Peptide amphiphile micelles (PAMs) are a promising lipid-based nanotechnology currently in development for a variety of applications ranging from atherosclerosis to cancer therapy. Especially relevant for immune applications, PAMs improve trafficking through lymphatic vessels, enhance uptake by antigen-presenting cells, and inhibit the protease-mediated degradation of cargo. However, the creation of the peptide amphiphiles (PAs) necessary to induce micellization often requires modifying an immunotarget peptide with non-native moieties, which can induce the production of off-target antibodies. Methods: PAs containing different linkers between the antigen and non-native flanking regions were synthesized and physically characterized. BALB/c mice were then subcutaneously immunized on days 0 and 14 with these formulations and ELISAs were conducted on the sera collected from vaccinated mice on day 35 to evaluate antibody responses. Results: We determined that Palm2K-M22–16-(KE)4 PAMs elicited off-target antibody responses and sought to avoid these unintended responses by adding linkers in between the M22–16 antigen and the non-native flanking regions (i.e., Palm2K- and -(KE)4) of the PA. Most significantly, the addition of diproline linkers on either side of the M22–16 antigen conferred a loss of β-sheet structure, whereas changing the method of lipid attachment from Palm2K- to Pam2CS-induced the formation of primarily spherical micelles compared to a mixture of spherical and short cylindrical micelles. Despite these morphological changes, all linker-containing PAMs still induced the production of off-target antibodies. Excitingly, however, the formulation containing a Pam2CS moiety (intended to mimic the adjuvanticity of the TLR2 agonist adjuvant Pam2CSK4) elicited high on-target antibody titers similar to those induced by PAMs co-delivered with Pam2CSK4. Conclusions: While the linkers tested did not completely eliminate the production of off-target antibodies elicited by the PAMs, the inclusion of a Pam2CS moiety both increased the amount of on-target antibodies and improved the ratio of on-target to off-target antibodies in response to the M22–16 vaccine. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Synthetic Vaccines)
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