Carbohydrate-based vaccines: challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Advances in the synthesis of oligo- or polysaccharides and new technologies developed in glycobiology studies have opened a new avenue in carbohydrate vaccine design. In principle, various types of cell-surface epitopes, characteristic of the invading organism or related to aberrant growth of cells, can be applied to develop vaccines. Numerous promising carbohydrate-based vaccine candidates have been prepared in recent years. This article, primarily for general readers, briefly presents the recent advances involving carbohydrate-based vaccines, including antibacterial, antiparasite, anticancer and antivirus vaccines.

Keywords::

• bacteria
• cancer
• carbohydrates
• parasites
• vaccine
• virus

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This study was supported by the Academia Sinica, Taiwan and National Science Council, Taiwan. No. NSC 97–2113-M-001–009-MY2 to Chung-Yi Wu. The authors have no other 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 apart from those disclosed.

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