Oral vaccine delivery--new strategies and technologies

Although most commercial vaccines are delivered by injection, there is an increasing interest in needle-free vaccine delivery for reasons including the ability to elicit immune responses at mucosal surfaces, ease of administration, and the ability to administer vaccines without the need for trained medical professionals. This review summarizes strategies and technologies that are being used to improve oral vaccine absorption. Peptides and proteins, which comprise important vaccine components, exhibit unfavorable physicochemical properties including degradation in the gastrointestinal tract, and poor transport across the intestinal wall, which hinder oral vaccine development. Approaches to overcome these obstacles aim to provide new vaccines and delivery systems that are capable of eliciting protective immune responses, and are making an impact on current vaccine development.