Vaccination has been one of the most successful breakthroughs in medical history. In recent years, epitope-based subunit vaccines have been introduced as a safer alternative to traditional vaccines. However, they suffer from limited immunogenicity. Nanotechnology has shown value in solving this issue. Different kinds of nanovaccines have been employed, among which virus-like nanoparticles (VLPs) and self-assembled peptide nanoparticles (SAPNs) seem very promising. Recently, SAPNs have attracted special interest due to their unique properties, including molecular specificity, biodegradability, and biocompatibility. They also resemble pathogens in terms of their size. Their multivalency allows an orderly repetitive display of antigens on their surface, which induces a stronger immune response than single immunogens. In vaccine design, SAPN self-adjuvanticity is regarded an outstanding advantage, since the use of toxic adjuvants is no longer required. SAPNs are usually composed of helical or β-sheet secondary structures and are tailored from natural peptides or de novo structures. Flexibility in subunit selection opens the door to a wide variety of molecules with different characteristics. SAPN engineering is an emerging area, and more novel structures are expected to be generated in the future, particularly with the rapid progress in related computational tools. The aim of this review is to provide a state-of-the-art overview of self-assembled peptide nanoparticles and their use in vaccine design in recent studies. Additionally, principles for their design and the application of computational approaches to vaccine design are summarized.

疫苗接种是医学史上最成功的突破之一。近年来，基于表位的亚单位疫苗已被引入，作为传统疫苗的更​​安全替代品。然而，它们的免疫原性有限。纳米技术在解决这个问题方面显示出了价值。人们已经使用了不同种类的纳米疫苗，其中病毒样纳米颗粒（VLP）和自组装肽纳米颗粒（SAPN）似乎非常有前途。最近，SAPN 因其独特的性质（包括分子特异性、生物降解性和生物相容性）而引起了人们的特别关注。它们的大小也与病原体相似。它们的多价性允许在其表面有序地重复展示抗原，这比单一免疫原诱导更强的免疫反应。在疫苗设计中，SAPN 自身佐剂被认为是一个突出的优势，因为不再需要使用有毒佐剂。 SAPN通常由螺旋或β-折叠二级结构组成，并由天然肽或从头结构剪裁而成。亚基选择的灵活性为具有不同特征的多种分子打开了大门。 SAPN工程是一个新兴领域，随着相关计算工具的快速进步，预计未来将会产生更多新颖的结构。本综述的目的是提供自组装肽纳米粒子及其在最近研究中疫苗设计中的应用的最新概述。此外，还总结了它们的设计原则以及计算方法在疫苗设计中的应用。