Synthetic Biology Journal ›› 2023, Vol. 4 ›› Issue (2): 333-346.DOI: 10.12211/2096-8280.2022-064

• Invited Review • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Synthetic biology and viral vaccine development

Zhaoling SHEN, Yanling WU, Tianlei YING   

  1. School of Basic Medical Sciences,Fudan University,Shanghai 200032,China
  • Received:2022-11-21 Revised:2022-12-29 Online:2023-04-27 Published:2023-04-30
  • Contact: Tianlei YING

合成生物学与病毒疫苗研发

申赵铃, 吴艳玲, 应天雷   

  1. 复旦大学基础医学院,上海 200032
  • 通讯作者: 应天雷
  • 作者简介:申赵铃(1999—),女,博士研究生。研究方向为病原微生物的防治新策略与跨脑药物的研发。E-mail:22111010074@m.fudan.edu.cn
    应天雷(1984—),男,博士,教授。研究方向为合成免疫学。E-mail:tlying@fudan.edu.cn
  • 基金资助:
    国家重点研发计划(2019YFA0904400)

Abstract:

Infectious diseases caused by viruses seriously endanger public health, and thus pose a great impact on socioeconomic development. Vaccine development is a critical and effective strategy for preventing the spread of infectious diseases to control them effectively. Generally, viral vaccines can be divided into various categories, such as whole virus vaccines (e.g. inactivated virus vaccines, split inactivated vaccines, and live attenuated vaccines), nucleic acid vaccines (DNA and RNA vaccines), recombinant subunits vaccines, and viral vector-based vaccines. However, strategies for developing viral vaccines still face some challenges, such as time-consuming, limited efficacy, and safety concern, which hinder their development, especially for fighting emerging infectious diseases timely. With the rapid development of synthetic biology, novel vaccines, named as synthetic vaccines, including genomic codon-optimized vaccines, nucleic acid vaccines, viral vector vaccines, virus-particle-like vaccines, and cell-based vaccines, have been designed, which can elicit immune protection more effectively. Synthetic biology technologies, such as codon optimization/deoptimization, genetically encoded click chemistry, and bioconjugation, can overcome weaknesses of traditional vaccines, and in the meantime facilitate the development of safe and efficient virus synthetic vaccines, which have been extensively explored. In this review, we summarize the current status of traditional vaccines, and also address the potential applications and advantages of synthetic biology technologies in the development of viral vaccines. At the end, we highlight the challenges of synthetic vaccines, which may provide insights and guidances for their design.

Key words: viral vaccines, synthetic biology, synthetic vaccines, genomic codon-optimized vaccines

摘要:

病毒所致的传染性疾病严重危害公共卫生安全,给全球人类健康与经济发展带来了巨大的威胁。疫苗是防治传染性疾病传播的一个关键且有效的手段,包括全病毒疫苗、亚单位疫苗、核酸疫苗等。然而,现有的疫苗开发策略面临研发周期、有效性、安全性等系列问题,是当今应对新发传染病的难点和痛点。利用合成生物学技术,比如密码子优化技术、可基因编码点击化学技术、生物偶联技术等,可以克服以上问题,在短时间内研发出安全且高效的病毒合成疫苗,因此合成生物学技术在病毒合成疫苗研发中的应用越来越广泛。本文总结了传统病毒疫苗的现状与应用,进而阐述了合成生物学技术在病毒疫苗研发中的应用与优势,并提出了病毒合成疫苗将要面临的挑战,为设计下一代新型病毒疫苗提供思路和方法。

关键词: 病毒疫苗, 合成生物学, 合成疫苗, 密码子优化疫苗

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