Introduction

The use of biocompatible polymers, from natural or synthetic sources, opened the door for a new era in vaccine research. These polymers offer the possibility to develop nanostructured antigen carriers that can be easily internalized by antigen presenting cells, due to their nanometric size. Besides, the incorporation of an adjuvant allows increasing and modulating the immune response for both, polymers with or without self-adjuvant properties.

Areas covered

The historical background and the state-of-the-art in the use of polymers as antigen carriers are addressed in the first part of this review. Then, an overview of the immunology of vaccination is provided. Finally, the main advances in the field, based on the prototypes that are licensed or undergoing clinical trials, but also the challenges that limit the translation of many polymer-based nanostructure vaccines with promising preclinical results, are discussed.

Expert opinion

Polymeric nanostructured-vaccines have a great potential in modern vaccinology. However, the translation into the market is hampered due to several limitations. Studies on correlates of protection to provide suitable biomarkers, new and better methods of synthesis to produce more reproducible nanovaccines, a deeper knowledge in the immune system and in the physiopathology of the infectious diseases will surely improve and boost the field in the next years.

中文翻译：

---

聚合纳米结构疫苗：应用和挑战

介绍

来自天然或合成来源的生物相容性聚合物的使用为疫苗研究的新纪元打开了大门。这些聚合物提供了开发纳米结构的抗原载体的可能性，由于其纳米尺寸，这些抗原载体可以很容易地被抗原呈递细胞内化。此外，掺入佐剂可以增加和调节具有或不具有自佐剂性质的聚合物的免疫应答。

覆盖区域

在这篇综述的第一部分中讨论了使用聚合物作为抗原载体的历史背景和最新技术。然后，提供了疫苗免疫学的概述。最后，讨论了基于许可的或正在进行临床试验的原型在该领域的主要进展，还讨论了限制许多基于聚合物的纳米结构疫苗的翻译以及具有可观的临床前结果的挑战。

专家意见

高分子纳米结构疫苗在现代疫苗学中具有巨大的潜力。但是，由于一些限制，翻译到市场上受到了阻碍。有关保护相关性的研究将提供合适的生物标志物，新的和更好的合成方法以生产更多可再现的纳米疫苗，对免疫系统和传染病生理病理学的更深入了解必将在未来几年内改善并促进这一领域的发展。