Trends in Parasitology
ForumUsing Protozoan Surface Proteins for Effective Oral Vaccination
Section snippets
Vaccines Work
Overwhelming evidence demonstrates the benefits of immunization as one of the most successful and cost-effective health interventions achieved to date. Currently, licensed vaccines control 25 vaccine-preventable infections that save an estimated 2.5 million lives each year [1]. Most vaccines are based on attenuated or chemically inactivated microorganisms, especially due to the potent and lasting immune responses they produce. However, they involve the risk of a defective inactivation or
Why Oral Immunization?
Almost all microorganisms enter and infect the host through mucous membranes. Therefore, local rather than systemic immunity is more effective in protecting against naturally transmitted pathogens. Mucosal vaccines delivered by oral, nasal, intravaginal, rectal, or sublingual routes target the common mucosal immune system (CMIS) (Box 1) and achieve a more complete protective immune response by conferring local as well as systemic immunity. Oral immunization is the most widely used form of
Overcoming Drawbacks
Although oral immunization certainly has several benefits, currently the main immunization routes are subcutaneous and intramuscular. There are few licensed oral vaccines (Table 1) consisting of attenuated or killed microorganisms that can survive intestinal degradation. The development of new oral vaccines requires critical parameters, including excellent antigen delivery and presentation in vivo. However, the harsh gastric pH and enzymes in the GIT degrade the antigens, resulting in a low
Mix and Match
The use of retrovirus-derived VLPs, in which heterologous proteins or peptides can be included at the surface, offers a very customizable and efficient system [7]. Due to its versatility, we can potentially apply this novel platform to design new vaccines against different microorganisms with relative ease. An attractive strategy would be to focus on those microorganisms associated with a high rate of antibiotic resistance, which represent a major threat to public health and the economy. As
Beyond Infection
In addition, when studying the properties of our novel vaccine platform, which displays influenza HA, we discovered that it is effective not only for the prevention of infection with influenza virus but also as an antitumor prophylactic, and even therapeutic, vaccine against tumor cells expressing HA. Hopefully, personalized antitumor vaccines could be generated using this technology along with the identification of potential tumor antigen targets for each particular tumor. Furthermore, the
Acknowledgments
We thank Pablo R. Gargantini for critical reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by grants from Fondo para la Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (FONCYT: PICT-13469, PICT-2703, PICT-E 0234, and PICT-2116), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET D4408), Universidad Católica de Córdoba (UCC 80020150200144CC) and Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva (MinCyT Res. 204/11) of Argentina, and a Georg Forster Award of the Alexander von
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Comprehensive characterization of Cysteine-rich protein-coding genes of Giardia lamblia and their role during antigenic variation
2022, GenomicsCitation Excerpt :All VSPs and most CRMPs were predicted to bind metals and to form intra- and inter-disulfide bonds (Table S5). It is likely that these characteristics favor the formation of the dense coat observed on the trophozoite [40], which is capable of resisting the action of proteases present in the upper small intestine [41]. Conversely, most SCRPs seem not to bind metals but can form disulfide bonds.
A Thermostable Oral SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Induces Mucosal and Protective Immunity
2022, Frontiers in ImmunologyProduction of Oral Vaccines Based on Virus-Like Particles Pseudotyped with Protozoan-Surface Proteins
2022, Methods in Molecular Biology
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These authors contributed equally to this article.