Development of influenza virosome-based synthetic malaria vaccines

Abstract

Background: The development of a malaria vaccine represents one of the most important scientific public health challenges of our time. One possible approach is based on subunit vaccines that use distinct malarial antigens for which there is some evidence of protective immunity from epidemiological data in the field or animal challenge models. It is generally accepted that an effective malaria subunit vaccine will target antigens of several developmental stages of the parasite. Objective: At present, the development of peptide-based vaccines is hampered by their poor immunogenicity and lack of in vivo stability of synthetic peptides and suitable antigen delivery systems driving appropriate immune responses in humans. Most importantly, the synthetic structures delivered have to mimic closely the corresponding native malaria protein to induce effective antibody responses. Methods: Review of recent publications highlighting the design as well as preclinical and clinical development of conformationally constrained synthetic peptides of two malaria proteins delivered on the surface of influenza virosomes. Results/conclusion: The great potential of influenza virosomes as a flexible, human-compatible antigen delivery platform for the development of a multivalent malaria subunit vaccine is described.

Keywords::

• adjuvant
• apical membrane antigen 1
• circumsporozoite protein
• clinical trial
• influenza virosomes
• malaria
• Plasmodium falciparum
• synthetic peptide