New Vaccine Technologies and Approaches 2.0

A special issue of Vaccines (ISSN 2076-393X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 December 2021) | Viewed by 15218

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
The Future Vaccine Manufacturing Research Hub, Department of Biochemical Engineering, University College London, Bernard Katz Building, London WC1E 6BT, UK
Interests: vaccine bioprocessing; downstream process development; technology transfer to LMIC; vaccine manufacture; vaccine analytics; bioprocess quality control

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Guest Editor
Laboratory of Malaria Immunology and Vaccinology, NIAID, NIH- Bethesda, MD, USA
Interests: anti-parasitic vaccines; antibody repertoire in vaccination; human mAbs expression

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The urgent global need for vaccines to prevent COVID-19, allied with the rapid development of immunization approaches targeting SARS-CoV-2, evidences how the vaccinology field has substantially evolved lately. New technologies for antigen design, the rapid discovery of high neutralizing monoclonal antibodies and the development of new delivery platforms are only a few examples. In addition, in recent years, innumerous changes have occurred in terms of density, age and traveling habits of the world population. Thus, changes in vaccine development that can address all these issues need to be implemented.               

This Special Issue aims to gather the latest research on new vaccine technologies and approaches, including, but not limited to, the following topics:

  1. Adjuvants;
  2. Antigen design;
  3. Delivery platforms;
  4. Nanoparticle viral vectors;
  5. Vaccine development for outbreaks;
  6. Immunization with whole organisms;
  7. DNA vaccines;
  8. RNA vaccines;
  9. Genetic adjuvants.

We look forward to your contribution to this Special Issue!

Dr. Stephen A. Morris
Guest Editor

Dr. Camila Coelho
Assistant Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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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

  • Vaccine Technologies 
  • Novel approaches for vaccination

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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11 pages, 1166 KiB  
Article
Design and Characterization of a Recombinant Brucella abortus RB51 Vaccine That Elicits Enhanced T Cell-Mediated Immune Response
by Mahdieh Sarmadi, Azam Gheibi, Hossein Khanahmad, Mohammad Reza Khorramizadeh, Seyed Hossein Hejazi, Noushin Zahedi, Hamidreza Mianesaz and Khosrow Kashfi
Vaccines 2022, 10(3), 388; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10030388 - 3 Mar 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2638
Abstract
Brucella abortus vaccines help control bovine brucellosis. The RB51 strain is a live attenuated vaccine with low side effects compared with other live attenuated brucellosis vaccines, but it provides insufficient protective efficacy. Cell-mediated immune responses are critical in resistance against intracellular bacterial infections. [...] Read more.
Brucella abortus vaccines help control bovine brucellosis. The RB51 strain is a live attenuated vaccine with low side effects compared with other live attenuated brucellosis vaccines, but it provides insufficient protective efficacy. Cell-mediated immune responses are critical in resistance against intracellular bacterial infections. Therefore, we hypothesized that the listeriolysin O (LLO) expression of Listeria monocytogenes, BAX, and SMAC apoptotic proteins in strain RB51 could enhance vaccine efficacy and safety. B. abortus RB51 was transformed separately with two broad-host-range plasmids (pbbr1ori-LLO and pBlu–mLLO-BAX-SMAC) constructed from our recent work. pbbr1ori-LLO contains LLO, and pBlu–mLLO-BAX-SMAC contains the mutant LLO and BAX-SMAC fusion gene. The murine macrophage-like cell line J774A.1 was infected with the RB51 recombinant strain containing pBlu-mLLO-BAX-SMAC, RB51 recombinant strain containing LLO, and RB51 strain. The bacterial cytotoxicity and survival and apoptosis of host cells contaminated with our two strain types—RB51 recombinants or the parental RB51—were assessed. Strain RB51 expressing mLLO and BAX-SMAC was tested in BALB/c mice and a cell line for enhanced modulation of IFN-γ production. LDH analysis showed that the RB51-mLLO-BAX-SMAC and RB51-LLO strains expressed higher cytotoxicity in J774A.1 cells than RB51. In addition, RB51 recombinants had lower macrophage survival rates and caused higher levels of apoptosis and necrosis. Mice vaccinated with the RB51 recombinant containing mLLO-BAX-SMAC showed an enhanced Th1 immune response. This enhanced immune response is primarily due to bacterial endosome escape and bacterial antigens, leading to improved apoptosis and cross-priming. This potentially enhanced TCD8+- and T cell-mediated immunity leads to the increased safety and potency of the RB51 recombinant (RB51 mLLO-BAX-SMAC) as a vaccine candidate against B. abortus. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Vaccine Technologies and Approaches 2.0)
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27 pages, 8879 KiB  
Article
Multi-Subunit SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Design Using Evolutionarily Conserved T- and B- Cell Epitopes
by Burkitkan Akbay, Syed Hani Abidi, Mahmoud A. A. Ibrahim, Zhussipbek Mukhatayev and Syed Ali
Vaccines 2021, 9(7), 702; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9070702 - 26 Jun 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4004
Abstract
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has created a public health crisis worldwide. Although vaccines against the virus are efficiently being rolled out, they are proving to be ineffective against certain emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. The high degree of sequence similarity between SARS-CoV-2 and other human coronaviruses [...] Read more.
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has created a public health crisis worldwide. Although vaccines against the virus are efficiently being rolled out, they are proving to be ineffective against certain emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. The high degree of sequence similarity between SARS-CoV-2 and other human coronaviruses (HCoV) presents the opportunity for designing vaccines that may offer protection against SARS-CoV-2 and its emerging variants, with cross-protection against other HCoVs. In this study, we performed bioinformatics analyses to identify T and B cell epitopes originating from spike, membrane, nucleocapsid, and envelope protein sequences found to be evolutionarily conserved among seven major HCoVs. Evolutionary conservation of these epitopes indicates that they may have critical roles in viral fitness and are, therefore, unlikely to mutate during viral replication thus making such epitopes attractive candidates for a vaccine. Our designed vaccine construct comprises of twelve T and six B cell epitopes that are conserved among HCoVs. The vaccine is predicted to be soluble in water, stable, have a relatively long half-life, and exhibit low allergenicity and toxicity. Our docking results showed that the vaccine forms stable complex with toll-like receptor 4, while the immune simulations predicted that the vaccine may elicit strong IgG, IgM, and cytotoxic T cell responses. Therefore, from multiple perspectives, our multi-subunit vaccine design shows the potential to elicit a strong immune-protective response against SARS-CoV-2 and its emerging variants while carrying minimal risk for causing adverse effects. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Vaccine Technologies and Approaches 2.0)
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28 pages, 12482 KiB  
Article
Escherichia coli-Based Cell-Free Protein Synthesis for Iterative Design of Tandem-Core Virus-Like Particles
by Noelle Colant, Beatrice Melinek, Stefanie Frank, William Rosenberg and Daniel G. Bracewell
Vaccines 2021, 9(3), 193; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9030193 - 25 Feb 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4505
Abstract
Tandem-core hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg) virus-like particles (VLPs), in which two HBcAg monomers are joined together by a peptide linker, can be used to display two different antigens on the VLP surface. We produced universal influenza vaccine candidates that use this scaffold [...] Read more.
Tandem-core hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg) virus-like particles (VLPs), in which two HBcAg monomers are joined together by a peptide linker, can be used to display two different antigens on the VLP surface. We produced universal influenza vaccine candidates that use this scaffold in an Escherichia coli-based cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) platform. We then used the CFPS system to rapidly test modifications to the arginine-rich region typically found in wild-type HBcAg, the peptide linkers around the influenza antigen inserts, and the plasmid vector backbone to improve titer and quality. Using a minimal plasmid vector backbone designed for CFPS improved titers by at least 1.4-fold over the original constructs. When the linker lengths for the influenza inserts were more consistent in length and a greater variety of codons for glycine and serine were utilized, titers were further increased to over 70 μg/mL (4.0-fold greater than the original construct) and the presence of lower molecular weight product-related impurities was significantly reduced, although improvements in particle assembly were not seen. Furthermore, any constructs with the C-terminal arginine-rich region removed resulted in asymmetric particles of poor quality. This demonstrates the potential for CFPS as a screening platform for VLPs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Vaccine Technologies and Approaches 2.0)
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7 pages, 508 KiB  
Brief Report
An Attenuated HSV-1-Derived Malaria Vaccine Expressing Liver-Stage Exported Proteins Induces Sterilizing Protection against Infectious Sporozoite Challenge
by Paul J. F. Rider, Mohd Kamil, Ilknur Yilmaz, Habibe N. Atmaca, Merve Kalkan-Yazici, Mehmet Ziya Doymaz, Konstantin G. Kousoulas and Ahmed S. I. Aly
Vaccines 2022, 10(2), 300; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10020300 - 16 Feb 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3088
Abstract
Here, we present the construction of an attenuated herpes simplex virus type-1 (HSV-1)-vectored vaccine, expressing three liver-stage (LS) malaria parasite exported proteins (EXP1, UIS3 and TMP21) as fusion proteins with the VP26 viral capsid protein. Intramuscular and subcutaneous immunizations of mice with a [...] Read more.
Here, we present the construction of an attenuated herpes simplex virus type-1 (HSV-1)-vectored vaccine, expressing three liver-stage (LS) malaria parasite exported proteins (EXP1, UIS3 and TMP21) as fusion proteins with the VP26 viral capsid protein. Intramuscular and subcutaneous immunizations of mice with a pooled vaccine, composed of the three attenuated virus strains expressing each LS antigen, induced sterile protection against the intravenous challenge of Plasmodium yoelii 17X-NL salivary gland sporozoites. Our data suggest that this malaria vaccine may be effective in preventing malaria parasite infection using practical routes of immunization in humans. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Vaccine Technologies and Approaches 2.0)
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