• The Gill Lab

  • Gold nanoparticles
    Gold nanoparticles as a novel
    platform for development and
    delivery of vaccines.
    (Image Credit: Logan Wilks)
  • Confocal image of pollens
    Plant pollens and spores as
    a novel platform for oral
    delivery of vaccines.
    (Image Credit: Yunzhe Ma)
  • Microneedle array
    Painless microneedles for
    vaccine and drug delivery to various
    tissues of the human body.
    (Image Credit: Harvinder Gill)
  • SEM of pollens
    Plant pollens and spores as
    a novel platform for oral
    delivery of vaccines.
    (Image Credit: Jasim Uddin)
  • 3D culture
    Crosslinked elastin-like
    polypeptide for 3D culture
    (Image Credit: Iyeswaria Amma)
  • Macrophages and pollens
    Macrophages attempting to
    phagocytose ragweed pollens
    (Image Credit: Jasim Uddin)

Gold nanoparticles for influenza vaccine delivery


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)



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