Novel approaches in the development of immunopotentiating reconstituted influenza virosomes as efficient antigen carrier systems

One of the most recent major advances in vaccinology, and currently the only licensed alternative to the traditional alum-based adjuvants, are immunopotentiating reconstituted influenza virosomes. The flexibility of this novel antigen delivery system enables the safe and effective delivery of modem vaccine developments, such as viral glycoproteins, bacterial toxoids, inactivated virus, recombinant proteins, synthetic peptides and DNA-plasmids or polynucleotides. These novel vaccine antigens are being incorporated into immunopotentiating reconstituted influenza virosomes in an attempt to develop a variety of new viral, bacterial and parasitic vaccines. In addition, immunopotentiating reconstituted influenza virosomes are showing future potential in the targeting of specific cells, such as tumor cells, and novel routes of vaccine administration. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.