Enveloped virus-like particle platforms: vaccines of the future?

Abstract

The techniques to produce effective vaccines have evolved, and the early vaccines (live, inactivated, subunit…) are no longer considered as the most appropriate for new vaccine development. We question here what will be the future vaccines, and argue that virus-like particle (VLP)–based vaccines are promising candidates. In addition to being effective vaccines against analogous viruses from which they are derived, VLPs can also be used to present foreign epitopes to the immune system. The achievement of this strategy can be illustrated by the recent development of malaria candidate vaccine. We point out recent VLP-based vaccine developments and discuss future perspectives.

Keywords:

• antigen platform
• retrovirus
• RTS,S
• vaccine development
• virus-like particles

Financial & competing interest’s disclosure

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 materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.