Do We Need Intelligent Motile Vector Swarms for Targeted Delivery of Vaccines to Antigen-Presenting Cells?
摘要
The ability of immune system cells to liaise with each other through an elaborate signalling network and, thereby, to generate an optimised collective reaction to a foreign antigen is often viewed within the abstract framework of swarm intelligence. So, paradoxically, in current vaccination procedures, the intelligent natural immune system is faced with artificial vaccine particles which are unable to make an intelligent contribution to successful vaccination through inter-particle signal transmission. One such desired intelligent collective behaviour of vaccine particles could be their enhanced targeted delivery to antigen-presenting cells (APCs), which form the first echelon of the entire adaptive branch of the immune system. These phagocytic cells are known to engulf foreign antigens, fragment them and then present them to other immune system cells, which, in turn, mediate antigen-specific immune responses. Intelligent targeting of vaccines at APCs could be achieved through engineering vaccine particles capable of forming moving vector clusters, which could improve targeted delivery of vaccines to APCs. One particularly appealing possibility is to construct swarm-forming vaccine particles with an entire motile bacterial cell as a chassis. The large cargo-carrying capacity of bacterial cells makes it possible to load them with antigens, adjuvants or genes coding for their expression in APCs, thereby increasing the overall amount and diversity of the delivered antigens and adjuvants. The chapter will examine the potential advantages and uncertainties of such motile bacterial implementation of the intelligent vaccine delivery swarms, focusing on the priorities of frontline viral vaccination practitioners.