Phage display and its application in vaccine design

This review focuses on phage display and its application in vaccine design. Four kinds of phage display systems and their characteristics are highlighted. Whole phage particles can be used to deliver vaccines by fusing immunogenic peptides to modified coat proteins (phage-display vaccination), or by incorporating a eukaryotic promoter-driven vaccine gene within the phage genome (phage DNA vaccination). Hybrid phage vaccination results from a combination of phage-display and phage DNA vaccination strategies, indicating the potential for evolution of phage vaccines. Phage vaccines could provide a key to unlock new approaches in combating bacterial and viral pathogens, and cancer diseases. New phage display systems will certainly emerge because of the global abundance of phage and our increasing ability to exploit them. The scope of phage display applications will continue to expand. Over the ensuing period, research should be directed toward a better understanding of the immunization mechanisms involved in phage-mediated immunization, and the development of hybrid phage vaccination.