The best form of protection against influenza is vaccination, in terms of efficacy to protect individuals and reduction of the social impact of epidemics on our human societies. Chapter 1 of this... Show moreThe best form of protection against influenza is vaccination, in terms of efficacy to protect individuals and reduction of the social impact of epidemics on our human societies. Chapter 1 of this thesis details the current influenza vaccines available and their lack of efficacy, and the current need for new adjuvanted influenza formulations. Pathogens are often particles and formulating antigens into nanoparticles (NP) results in systems that resemble the pathogens in terms of size, and notably can promote antigen uptake by dendritic cells (DC). The principal aim of the research in this thesis was to investigate how NP systems can act as an adjuvant for subunit influenza vaccine Show less
Microneedle-based transcutaneous immunisation is an appealing alternative to the classical manner of injecting vaccines by intramuscular or subcutaneous route. Importantly, as a consequence of the... Show moreMicroneedle-based transcutaneous immunisation is an appealing alternative to the classical manner of injecting vaccines by intramuscular or subcutaneous route. Importantly, as a consequence of the fact that the skin is in direct contact with the environment and should protect the body against pathogens, it contains more antigen presenting cells, such as dendritic cells than the muscles or subcutaneous tissue and thereby offers the possibility to induce a more effective immune response. The combination of microneedles and adjuvanted subunit vaccines may offer effective vaccination whereas ensuring patient safety and vaccine application in a painless manner. The principal aim of this thesis was to design subunit vaccine formulations that can be combined with microneedles for transcutaneous immunisation. The approaches described in this thesis have generated new insights into the main requirements for transcutaneous immunisation. Microneedles definitively have the potential to be an excellent utensil for the delivery of vaccines into the skin. However, the skin is a very elastic organ and the actual conduits formed by microneedle pre-treatment will be considerably smaller than the diameter of the microneedles. Therefore, a small antigen-adjuvant entity is the preferred formulation, as it will be transported efficiently through the microneedle conduits while it retains the co-delivery of antigen and adjuvant. Show less
