Biomimetic Nanotechnology toward Personalized Vaccines

Abstract

While traditional approaches for disease management in the era of modern medicine have saved countless lives and enhanced patient well‐being, it is clear that there is significant room to improve upon the current status quo. For infectious diseases, the steady rise of antibiotic resistance has resulted in super pathogens that do not respond to most approved drugs. In the field of cancer treatment, the idea of a cure‐all silver bullet has long been abandoned. As a result of the challenges facing current treatment and prevention paradigms in the clinic, there is an increasing push for personalized therapeutics, where plans for medical care are established on a patient‐by‐patient basis. Along these lines, vaccines, both against bacteria and tumors, are a clinical modality that could benefit significantly from personalization. Effective vaccination strategies could help to address many challenging disease conditions, but current vaccines are limited by factors such as a lack of potency and antigenic breadth. Recently, researchers have turned toward the use of biomimetic nanotechnology as a means of addressing these hurdles. Recent progress in the development of biomimetic nanovaccines for antibacterial and anticancer applications is discussed, with an emphasis on their potential for personalized medicine.

Drug Targeting via Platelet Membrane–Coated Nanoparticles

“…In addition to these two applications, PNPs can also be made into toxoid vaccines similar to nanoparticles coated with RBC or macrophage membranes. [116,120,121] Similar to RBC membrane, platelet membrane can also be used for coating and detecting bacteria due to their broad-spectrum absorption of bacteria and bacterium-derived pathogenic factors. [122] With these possibilities, PNPs are expected to generate exciting opportunities for the development of future antibacterial therapies.…”

Advancements in prophylactic and therapeutic nanovaccines

“…Therefore, concerns over nanoparticle usage for vaccines are still in existence. Scaling up is another major problem that has been minimized up to an extent because of technological advancements, but scale-up in a sterile environment is still a significant challenge [213] .…”

“…This can prevent bacterial colonization effectively and reduce direct selective pressure to develop antibiotic resistance. A large number of such nano-toxoid formulations can be developed by varying the outer membrane coating of these biomimetic nanovaccines [213] . Despite the advancements in the field of cancer nano-based immunotherapy, the major challenge is the toxicological assessments of these nanovaccines.…”

Nanoengineered targeting strategy for cancer immunotherapy

“…Compared to traditional nanoparticles, they displayed outstanding characteristics of long circulation and disease-relevant targeting. Since many tumor-related antigens exist on the tumor cell membrane [17,40], Ashley et al developed tumor cell membrane-coated NPs containing a highly immunostimulatory adjuvant. The results showed that this nanovaccine could generate a durable anticancer response in vivo and have synergistic effects with checkpoint blockade inhibitors to retard cancer growth [41].…”