Virus-like particles and its applications in vaccinology

Abstract

The most successful vaccines have been developed using conventional methods that follow the paradigm established by Pasteur in the XIX century: "to isolate, inactivate and inject" the pathogen microorganism and mimic a natural infection. With the arrival of metagenomics, the selection of antigens based on genomic information has played an important role in the discovery of new immunogens for vaccine design. The main approach that has used this strategy has been called "reverse vaccinology" and allows to screen the entire potential antigenic repertoire of an organism through its genome, using predictive bioinformatic tools. Using in vitro molecular cloning methods, the protein or proteins selected as antigens may be artificially produced to evaluate their capacity of generating a protective immune response in animal models. The main aim of this approach is to evaluate the ability of the immune response to eliminate or neutralize the pathogen at the time of infection. Those antigens capable of generate a specific immune response with neutralizing activity for future natural infections are the best candidate vaccines.

This review summarizes the evolution of vaccinology since its inception in the eighteenth century with the emergence of the smallpox vaccine to the development of reverse vaccinology, with special emphasis on the development of VLPs as vaccine platforms and their future in preventive medicine.