Layer-by-Layer Nanoassemblies for Vaccination Purposes

Abstract

In recent years, the availability of effective vaccines has become a public health challenge due to the proliferation of different pandemic outbreaks which are a risk for the world population health. Therefore, the manufacturing of new formulations providing a robust immune response against specific diseases is of paramount importance. This can be partially faced by introducing vaccination systems based on nanostructured materials, and in particular, nanoassemblies obtained by the Layer-by-Layer (LbL) method. This has emerged, in recent years, as a very promising alternative for the design and optimization of effective vaccination platforms. In particular, the versatility and modularity of the LbL method provide very powerful tools for fabricating functional materials, opening new avenues on the design of different biomedical tools, including very specific vaccination platforms. Moreover, the possibility to control the shape, size, and chemical composition of the supramolecular nanoassemblies obtained by the LbL method offers new opportunities for manufacturing materials which can be administered following specific routes and present very specific targeting. Thus, it will be possible to increase the patient convenience and the efficacy of the vaccination programs. This review presents a general overview on the state of the art of the fabrication of vaccination platforms based on LbL materials, trying to highlight some important advantages offered by these systems.

Keywords: Layer-by-Layer; immune response; multilayers; nanomaterials; self-assembly; vaccines.

Figure 1

(a) Scheme of the main merits and characteristics of the LbL method for the fabrication of structured nanoassemblies. Reprinted from Guzmán et al. [1]. Copyright (2020), with permission from Elsevier. (b) Summary of the different parameters affecting the assembly of LbL films. Reproduced from with permission from [82] the PCCP Owner Societies.

Figure 2

(a) Sketch representing the fabrication of single-injection vaccines based on LbL structures. (b) Sketch of the time-controlled pulsatile release of antigenic material at different timescales. Adapted from Wang et al. [101]. Copyright (2022), with permission from Elsevier.

Figure 3

Sketch representing the release profile including several pulses of vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 using LbL particles. Reprinted from Zhou et al. [102]. Copyright (2022), with permission from Elsevier.

Figure 4

Sketch representing the fabrication process and action mechanism of self-boosting core-shell microparticle vaccines. Reprinted from Di et al. [102,103]. Copyright (2023), with permission from John Wiley and Sons.

Figure 5

Sketch representing the fabrication process of iPEMs and their action mechanism of self-boosting core-shell microparticle vaccine. Reprinted from Zhang et al. [113] under CC-BY license.

Figure 6

Sketch representing the structure of the assembled systems and the implantation mechanism together with confocal microscopy images where the delivery of fluorescent-labeled ovalbumin to mouse ear skin after 15 s, 30 s, and 60 s of microneedle insertion, respectively, is evidenced. The scale bars correspond to 1 mm. Reprinted with permission from He et al. [116]. Copyright (2018) American Chemical Society.

Figure 7

(a) Sketch of the (Poly-1/ICMV) multilayers decorated microneedle surfaces. (b) Microneedle application into the skin. (c) Hydrolytic degradation of Poly-1 releasing the ICMV. (d) ICMV delivery to skin APCs. Reprinted with permission from DeMuth et al. [92]. Copyright (2012) American Chemical Society.

Figure 8

(A) Sketch representing the structure of LbL microneedles loaded with polyplexes and chemoattractant. (B) Sketch of the vaccination process. Reprinted from Kim et al. [122]. Copyright (2023), with permission from Elsevier.