Advanced Materials for SARS‐CoV‐2 Vaccines

• Published in: Advanced materials (Weinheim) 2022-03, Vol.34 (12), p.e2107781-n/a
• Main Authors: Mabrouk, Moustafa T., Huang, Wei‐Chiao, Martinez‐Sobrido, Luis, Lovell, Jonathan F.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adjuvants; Antibodies; Antibodies, Viral; Biomedical materials; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; COVID-19 - prevention & control; COVID-19 Vaccines; Humans; Lipids; Liposomes; Materials science; Nanoparticles; Pandemics; Platforms; Review; Reviews; SARS-CoV-2; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Vaccines; Viral diseases; Viral Vaccines
• ISSN: 0935-9648; 1521-4095; 1521-4095
• DOI: 10.1002/adma.202107781

The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2), has killed untold millions worldwide and has hurtled vaccines into the spotlight as a go‐to approach to mitigate it. Advances in virology, genomics, structural biology, and vaccine technologies have enabled a rapid and unprecedented rollout of COVID‐19 vaccines, although much of the developing world remains unvaccinated. Several new vaccine platforms have been developed or deployed against SARS‐CoV‐2, with most targeting the large viral Spike immunogen. Those that safely induce strong and durable antibody responses at low dosages are advantageous, as well are those that can be rapidly produced at a large scale. Virtually all COVID‐19 vaccines and adjuvants possess nanoscale or microscale dimensions and represent diverse and unique biomaterials. Viral vector vaccine platforms, lipid nanoparticle mRNA vaccines and multimeric display technologies for subunit vaccines have received much attention. Nanoscale vaccine adjuvants have also been used in combination with other vaccines. To deal with the ongoing pandemic, and to be ready for potential future ones, advanced vaccine technologies will continue to be developed in the near future. Herein, the recent use of advanced materials used for developing COVID‐19 vaccines is summarized. Vaccines have been a major focus of the global SARS‐CoV‐2 response. Advanced materials have played a role in enabling the current generation of effective vaccines that have been deployed, and also they have shown promise in next‐generation vaccines that are being developed in response to the pandemic.