Life Sciences, Marmara Research Center, TUBITAK, Kocaeli, Türkiye.
Molecular Biology and Genetics Department, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Türkiye.
Curr Microbiol. 2024 Aug 20;81(10):317. doi: 10.1007/s00284-024-03846-y.
Throughout history, infectious diseases have plagued humanity, with outbreaks occurring regularly worldwide. Not every outbreak affects people globally; however, in the case of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), it reached a pandemic level within a remarkably short period. Fortunately, advancements in medicine and biotechnology have facilitated swift responses to the disease, resulting in the development of therapeutics and vaccines. Nevertheless, the persistent spread of the virus and the emergence of new variants underscore the necessity for protective interventions, leading researchers to seek more effective vaccines. Despite the presence of various types of vaccines, including mRNA and inactivated vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, new platforms have been investigated since the pandemic, and research on bacterial membrane vesicles (BMVs) has demonstrated their potential as a novel COVID-19 vaccine platform. Researchers have explored different strategies for BMV-based COVID-19 vaccines, such as mixing the vesicles with antigenic components of the virus due to their adjuvant capacity or decorating the vesicles with the viral antigens to create adjuvanted delivery systems. These approaches have presented promising results in inducing robust immune responses, but obstacles such as reproducibility in obtaining and homogeneous characterization of BMVs remain in developing vesicle-based vaccines. Overall, the development of BMV-based vaccines represents a novel and promising strategy in the fight against COVID-19. Additional research and clinical trials are needed to further evaluate the potential of these vaccines to offer long-lasting protection against SARS-CoV-2 and its evolving variants.
纵观历史，传染病一直困扰着人类，世界各地经常爆发疫情。并非每次疫情都会在全球范围内影响人们；然而，在由新型冠状病毒（SARS-CoV-2）引起的 2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）中，它在极短的时间内达到了大流行的程度。幸运的是，医学和生物技术的进步促进了对该疾病的快速反应，从而开发出了治疗方法和疫苗。然而，病毒的持续传播和新变种的出现突出了需要采取保护干预措施，促使研究人员寻求更有效的疫苗。尽管存在各种类型的疫苗，包括针对 SARS-CoV-2 的 mRNA 和灭活疫苗，但自大流行以来，已经研究了新的平台，并且对细菌膜囊泡（BMV）的研究表明它们有潜力成为新型 COVID-19 疫苗平台。研究人员已经探索了基于 BMV 的 COVID-19 疫苗的不同策略，例如由于其佐剂能力而将囊泡与病毒的抗原成分混合，或者用病毒抗原修饰囊泡以创建佐剂递送系统。这些方法在诱导强大的免疫反应方面取得了有希望的结果，但在开发基于囊泡的疫苗方面，仍存在获得和均匀表征 BMV 方面的可重复性等障碍。总的来说，基于 BMV 的疫苗的开发代表了对抗 COVID-19 的一种新颖而有前途的策略。需要进一步的研究和临床试验来进一步评估这些疫苗提供针对 SARS-CoV-2 及其不断进化的变种的持久保护的潜力。
