Vaccines are considered the bedrock of preventive medicine. However, for many pathogens, it has been challenging to develop vaccines that stimulate protective, long-lasting immunity. We have developed a novel approach using β-1,3-D-glucans (BGs), natural polysaccharides abundantly present in fungal cell walls, as a biomaterial platform for vaccine delivery. BGs simultaneously provide for receptor-targeted antigen delivery to specialized antigen-presenting cells together with adjuvant properties to stimulate antigen-specific and trained non-specific immune responses. This review focuses on various approaches of using BG particles (GPs) to develop bacterial and fungal vaccine candidates. A special case history for the development of an effective GP tularaemia vaccine candidate is highlighted.
Keywords: beta-glucans; fungal; tularemia; vaccine.
© 2019 Crown copyright. Clinical and Experimental Immunology © 2019 British Society for Immunology. This article is published with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.