New Routes and Opportunities for Modular Construction of Particulate Vaccines: Stick, Click, and Glue

Nearing 30 years since its introduction, 3D printing technology is set to revolutionize research and teaching laboratories. This feature encompasses the history of 3D printing, reviews various printing methods, and presents current applications. The authors offer an appraisal of the future direction and impact this technology will have on laboratory settings as 3D printers become more accessible.

Influenza viruses pose a significant threat to the public and are a burden on global health systems. Each year, influenza vaccines must be rapidly produced to match circulating viruses, a process constrained by dated technology and vulnerable to unexpected strains emerging from humans and animal reservoirs. Here we use knowledge of protein structure to design self-assembling nanoparticles that elicit broader and more potent immunity than traditional influenza vaccines. The viral haemagglutinin was genetically fused to ferritin, a protein that naturally forms nanoparticles composed of 24 identical polypeptides. Haemagglutinin was inserted at the interface of adjacent subunits so that it spontaneously assembled and generated eight trimeric viral spikes on its surface. Immunization with this influenza nanoparticle vaccine elicited haemagglutination inhibition antibody titres more than tenfold higher than those from the licensed inactivated vaccine. Furthermore, it elicited neutralizing antibodies to two highly conserved vulnerable haemagglutinin structures that are targets of universal vaccines: the stem and the receptor binding site on the head. Antibodies elicited by a 1999 haemagglutinin-nanoparticle vaccine neutralized H1N1 viruses from 1934 to 2007 and protected ferrets from an unmatched 2007 H1N1 virus challenge. This structure-based, self-assembling synthetic nanoparticle vaccine improves the potency and breadth of influenza virus immunity, and it provides a foundation for building broader vaccine protection against emerging influenza viruses and other pathogens.

The candidate malaria vaccine RTS,S/AS01 reduced episodes of both clinical and severe malaria in children 5 to 17 months of age by approximately 50% in an ongoing phase 3 trial. We studied infants 6 to 12 weeks of age recruited for the same trial. We administered RTS,S/AS01 or a comparator vaccine to 6537 infants who were 6 to 12 weeks of age at the time of the first vaccination in conjunction with Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) vaccines in a three-dose monthly schedule. Vaccine efficacy against the first or only episode of clinical malaria during the 12 months after vaccination, a coprimary end point, was analyzed with the use of Cox regression. Vaccine efficacy against all malaria episodes, vaccine efficacy against severe malaria, safety, and immunogenicity were also assessed. The incidence of the first or only episode of clinical malaria in the intention-to-treat population during the 14 months after the first dose of vaccine was 0.31 per person-year in the RTS,S/AS01 group and 0.40 per person-year in the control group, for a vaccine efficacy of 30.1% (95% confidence interval [CI], 23.6 to 36.1). Vaccine efficacy in the per-protocol population was 31.3% (97.5% CI, 23.6 to 38.3). Vaccine efficacy against severe malaria was 26.0% (95% CI, -7.4 to 48.6) in the intention-to-treat population and 36.6% (95% CI, 4.6 to 57.7) in the per-protocol population. Serious adverse events occurred with a similar frequency in the two study groups. One month after administration of the third dose of RTS,S/AS01, 99.7% of children were positive for anti-circumsporozoite antibodies, with a geometric mean titer of 209 EU per milliliter (95% CI, 197 to 222). The RTS,S/AS01 vaccine coadministered with EPI vaccines provided modest protection against both clinical and severe malaria in young infants. (Funded by GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals and the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative; RTS,S ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00866619.).