Plant-based vaccines for emerging infectious diseases

Understanding the relationship of infectious materials with host immunity, along with the importance of faulty immune function in the progression of the disease, would be instrumental in explaining infectious pathogenicity, predisposing factors for the worst outcome, and the rational design of therapeutic interventions and immunization. There is a rising need for defended, improved, and effectual vaccine candidates against emerging infectious diseases in various components of the world. Plant-derived vaccines are primarily based on the protein components of infectious viruses. However, some vaccine candidates also use a unique pathogen target, such as the N protein. Tobacco plants have been used to create virus-like particles (VLPs), chimeric VLPs, protein subunit vaccines, and carrier molecule-fused protein subunit vaccines. The plant-based manufacturing process could meet a portion of the world's vaccine demand. In this review, an attempt is made to summarize the state-of-the-art plant-derived vaccine rostrum for infectious diseases that are in the clinical development stage and have demonstrated favorable results with reference to effectiveness and security.<br/

Lyotropic liquid crystalline phases: Drug delivery and biomedical applications

Liquid crystal (LC)-based nanoformulations may efficiently deliver drugs and therapeutics to targeted biological sites. Lyotropic liquid crystalline phases (LLCPs) have received much interest in recent years due to their unique structural characteristics of both isotropic liquids and crystalline solids. These LLCPs can be utilized as promising drug delivery systems to deliver drugs, proteins, peptides and vaccines because of their improved drug loading, stabilization, and controlled drug release. The effects of molecule shape, microsegregation, and chirality are very important in the formation of liquid crystalline phases (LCPs). Homogenization of self-assembled amphiphilic lipids, water and stabilizers produces LLCPs with different types of mesophases, bicontinuous cubic (cubosomes) and inverse hexagonal (hexosomes). Moreover, many studies have also shown higher bioadhesivity and biocompatibility of LCs due to their structural resemblance to biological membranes, thus making them more efficient for targeted drug delivery. In this review, an outline of the engineering aspects of LLCPs and polymer-based LLCPs is summarized. Moreover, it covers parenteral, oral, transdermal delivery and medical imaging of LC in targeting various tissues and is discussed with a scope to design more efficient next-generation novel nanosystems. In addition, a detailed overview of advanced liquid crystal-based drug delivery for vaccines and biomedical applications is reviewed.</p

Delivery of gene editing therapeutics

For the past decades, gene editing demonstrated the potential to attenuate each of the root causes of genetic, infectious, immune, cancerous, and degenerative disorders. More recently, Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats-CRISPR-associated protein 9 (CRISPR-Cas9) editing proved effective for editing genomic, cancerous, or microbial DNA to limit disease onset or spread. However, the strategies to deliver CRISPR-Cas9 cargos and elicit protective immune responses requires safe delivery to disease targeted cells and tissues. While viral vector-based systems and viral particles demonstrate high efficiency and stable transgene expression, each are limited in their packaging capacities and secondary untoward immune responses. In contrast, the nonviral vector lipid nanoparticles were successfully used for as vaccine and therapeutic deliverables. Herein, we highlight each available gene delivery systems for treating and preventing a broad range of infectious, inflammatory, genetic, and degenerative diseases. Statement of significance: CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing for disease treatment and prevention is an emerging field that can change the outcome of many chronic debilitating disorders.</p