Polymeric micro/nanoparticles: Particle design and potential vaccine delivery applications

Particle based adjuvant showed promising signs on delivering antigen to immune cells and acting as stimulators to elicit preventive or therapeutic response. Nevertheless, the wide size distribution of available polymeric particles has so far obscured the immunostimulative effects of particle adjuvant, and compromised the progress in pharmacological researches. To conquer this hurdle, our research group has carried out a series of researches regarding the particulate vaccine, by taking advantage of the successful fabrication of polymeric particles with uniform size. In this review, we highlight the insight and practical progress focused on the effects of physiochemical property (e.g. particle size, charge, hydrophobicity, surface chemical group, and particle shape) and antigen loading mode on the resultant biological/immunological outcome. The underlying mechanisms of how the particles-based vaccine functioned in the immune system are also discussed. Based on the knowledge, particles with high antigen payload and optimized attributes could be designed for expected adjuvant purpose, leading to the development of high efficient vaccine candidates.