Journal of Nanomedicine & Biotherapeutic Discovery
Open Access

Abstract

Gold Nanoparticles (AuNPs): A New Frontier in Vaccine Delivery

Joseph D. Comber and Anil Bamezai

Prophylactic vaccination is one of the most effective interventions in medicine and is responsible for substantial decreases in morbidity and mortality by many pathogens worldwide [1,2]. Although the concept of vaccination has existed since the early 1000s, it was not until the 1700s that the first experimental proof for vaccination emerged. Edward Jenner demonstrated that exposure to cowpox virus protected individuals from infection by the related, but much more virulent, smallpox virus [3]. Today, even as our understanding of the immune system rapidly expands, the basic idea behind early strategies of vaccination still holds: protection is best achieved by activating the immune system before an exposure to an infectious pathogen.