What Are the Most Powerful Immunogen Design Vaccine Strategies?
A Structural Biologist’s Perspective
- Vaccine Research Center, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
- Correspondence: pkwong{at}nih.gov
Abstract
The ability of structure-based design to control the shape and reactivity—the atomic-level chemistry—of an immunogen argues for it being one of the “most powerful” immunogen-design strategies. But antigenic reactivity is only one of the properties required to induce a protective immune response. Here, a multidimensional approach is used to exemplify the enabling role atomic-level information can play in the development of immunogens against three viral pathogens, respiratory syncytial virus, influenza A virus, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which have resisted standard approaches to vaccine development. Overall, structure-based strategies incorporating B-cell ontogenies and viral evasion mechanisms appear exceptionally powerful.