Molecular engineering tools for the development of vaccines against infectious diseases: current status and future directions

ABSTRACT

Introduction

The escalating global changes have fostered conditions for the expansion and transmission of diverse biological factors, leading to the rise of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases. Complex viral infections, such as COVID-19, influenza, HIV, and Ebola, continue to surface, necessitating the development of effective vaccine technologies.

Areas covered

This review article highlights recent advancements in molecular biology, virology, and genomics that have propelled the design and development of innovative molecular tools. These tools have promoted new vaccine research platforms and directly improved vaccine efficacy. The review summarizes the cutting-edge molecular engineering tools used in creating novel vaccines and explores the rapidly expanding molecular tools landscape and potential directions for future vaccine development.

Expert opinion

The strategic application of advanced molecular engineering tools can address conventional vaccine limitations, enhance the overall efficacy of vaccine products, promote diversification in vaccine platforms, and form the foundation for future vaccine development. Prioritizing safety considerations of these novel molecular tools during vaccine development is crucial.

KEYWORDS:

• molecular engineering tools
• novel vaccines
• infectious diseases
• protein modification
• gene editing

Article highlights

• Vaccination is a highly effective strategy for preventing infectious diseases, and the advancement of new vaccines enhances the ability to control complex pathogens.

• Conventional vaccine technologies face limitations when addressing new and intricate pathogens, underscoring the need for diverse vaccine platforms.

• Molecular engineering tools expedite the development of innovative vaccine platforms, providing increased flexibility and precision in vaccine design, leading to superior disease protection and potential improvements in global health outcomes.

• Gene editing tools refine virus attenuation accuracy, enable new attenuation strategies, and support the development of safer and more efficient attenuated vaccines.

• Protein engineering tools offer powerful means to modify proteins, enhancing natural protein functions and unlocking limitless possibilities for creating novel immunogens, especially virus-like particles. These tools can effectively design improved immunogenic proteins, presenting promising prospects in immunology research.

• The development of safe and effective subunit vaccines largely depends on molecular adjuvants. The limited availability of clinically approved molecular adjuvants highlights the need to develop diverse, safe, and efficient alternatives.

• Virology research has enabled the development of viral-vectored vaccines, which can induce robust and comprehensive immune responses. These vaccines offer potential solutions to challenges posed by complex pathogens.

• The success of mRNA vaccines has stimulated extensive research in vaccine development, primarily due to the implementation of advanced delivery systems. The exploration of more efficient delivery technologies could lead to further breakthroughs in vaccine development.

Acknowledgments

We sincerely thank the drawing support provided by the Figdraw platform (www.figdraw.com).

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or material discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or mending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Author contributions

S.L. and N.S. designed and funded the study. W.X. and T.L. wrote the original draft, reviewed and edited the manuscript, Y.G., N.X., and S.L. participated in discussion and interpretation of the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant no: 2021YFC2301404), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no: 81991491, 82271873, 82001756), CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences of China (grant no: 2019RU022), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (20720220004, 20720220006).