Influenza virus causes serious respiratory illness and has potential to cause pandemics. Due to the high mutation rate in influenza genes encoding the hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA), antigenic drift creates a new strain each year. Consequently there is significant economic burden to monitor virus activity and to create and distribute new influenza vaccines to the public each year. M2e is the highly conserved ectodomain region of M2, the ion-channel protein found on the influenza virus surface, and it is a prime target for development of a universal influenza vaccine. However, the low immunogenicity of M2e continues to be a limiting factor, and has prompted development of various vaccination strategies. We postulated that attachment of M2e to the gold nanoparticle surface could generate nanocomplexes with a high surface density of M2e, which coupled with the particulate nature of the nanocomplex could significantly enhance the immunogenicity of M2e. Accordingly this research investigates the potential of gold nanoparticle-M2e nanocomplexes for influenza vaccination. (⇐BACK)