Abstract
The prevention and control of infectious diseases is crucial to the maintenance and protection of social and public healthcare. The global impact of SARS-CoV-2 has demonstrated how outbreaks of emerging and re-emerging infections can lead to pandemics of significant public health and socio-economic burden. Vaccination is one of the most effective approaches to protect against infectious diseases, and to date, multiple vaccines have been successfully used to protect against and eradicate both viral and bacterial pathogens. The main criterion of vaccine efficacy is the induction of specific humoral and cellular immune responses, and it is well established that immunogenicity depends on the type of vaccine as well as the route of delivery. In addition, antigen delivery to immune organs and the site of injection can potentiate efficacy of the vaccine. In light of this, microvesicles have been suggested as potential vehicles for antigen delivery as they can carry various immunogenic molecules including proteins, nucleic acids and polysaccharides directly to target cells. In this review, we focus on the mechanisms of microvesicle biogenesis and the role of microvesicles in infectious diseases. Further, we discuss the application of microvesicles as a novel and effective vaccine delivery system.
Highlights
Vaccines are one of the most critical healthcare interventions, protecting millions of people around the world and contributing to the decreased incidence of a variety of infectious diseases and associated fatality rates
Depending on the natural and unique properties related to their origin, MVs have been used as delivery vehicles toward specific cells and tissues
We reviewed the role of MVs in therapeutics against infectious diseases and highlighted the potential of MVs as antigen-carrying systems that can improve vaccine efficacy and overcome potential classical vaccine limitations
Summary
Vaccines are one of the most critical healthcare interventions, protecting millions of people around the world and contributing to the decreased incidence of a variety of infectious diseases and associated fatality rates. These are suggested to be a safer approach due to limited side effects and reduced chance of reversion to virulence through back-mutation of attenuating mutations in LAVs [11] Another alternative currently under investigation is the use of novel vehicles for vaccine delivery such as cell-derived, lipid bi-layered extracellular vesicles (EVs), which could improve antigen retention at the site of injection, facilitate delivery to immune cells and increase overall immunogenicity [12,13,14]. A novel approach for vaccine design includes delivery of nucleic acids such as DNA or RNA, which encode specific target antigens that thereby elicit immune responses in the host [44,45] These vaccines are gaining popularity due to their relatively simple design requirements, cost-effectiveness and ease of production. These vaccines are currently in various stages of clinical trials [45,46,47], and due to the global public health COVID-19 emergency, they have only very recently been approved for human use [48,49,50]
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