Issue 2, 2016

Peptide-based synthetic vaccines

Abstract

Classically all vaccines were produced using live or attenuated microorganisms or parts of them. However, the use of whole organisms, their components or the biological process for vaccine production has several weaknesses. The presence of immunologically redundant biological components or biological impurities in such vaccines might cause major problems. All the disadvantageous of traditional vaccines might be overcome via the development of fully synthetic peptide-based vaccines. However, once minimal antigenic epitopes only are applied for immunisation, the immune responses are poor. The use of an adjuvant can overcome this obstacle; however, it may raise new glitches. Here we briefly summarise the current stand on peptide-based vaccines, discuss epitope and adjuvant design, and multi-epitope and nanoparticle-based vaccine approaches. This mini review discusses also the disadvantages and benefits associated with peptide-based vaccines. It proposes possible methods to overcome the weaknesses of the synthetic vaccine strategy and suggests future directions for its development.

Graphical abstract: Peptide-based synthetic vaccines

Article information

Article type
Minireview
Submitted
14 out 2015
Accepted
14 dez 2015
First published
17 dez 2015
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2016,7, 842-854

Author version available

Peptide-based synthetic vaccines

M. Skwarczynski and I. Toth, Chem. Sci., 2016, 7, 842 DOI: 10.1039/C5SC03892H

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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