Enabling Vaccine Delivery Platforms and Adjuvants for Malaria

Abstract

Enabling vaccine delivery platforms and adjuvants with promising attributes for malaria vaccine development are reviewed within the framework of accessibility, efficacy, clinical status, cost, and cold-chain considerations. An emphasis is placed on commercially available platforms and adjuvants including virus-like particle, nanoparticle, microneedle, and mRNA vaccine delivery platforms as well as lipid vesicle, microparticle, and emulsion-based adjuvants. Strategies for addressing complications of vaccine delivery in endemic regions due to concatenate vaccination and infection, and parasite immune avoidance mechanisms are presented. Additionally, recent findings regarding how malaria infection triggers inflammatory pathways and T cell exhaustion along with negative impacts to the development of effective memory responses are described in a context relevant to vaccine development.

A particulate saponin/TLR agonist vaccine adjuvant alters lymph flow and modulates adaptive immunity

“…Adjuvants are important components of vaccines, promoting protective immune responses to poorly immunogenic antigens. Very few adjuvants have been approved as part of licensed human vaccines to date, and the development of new adjuvants that can safely augment adaptive immune responses is of great interest for vaccine efforts against infectious diseases for which billions of people are at risk, such as malaria, tuberculosis, HIV (1,2), and now coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) (3). Saponins are triterpene glycosides isolated from natural sources such as the Quillaja saponaria tree, which have been under extensive study as vaccine adjuvants (4,5).…”