The Advantages of Micelles

Posted by Catalina Garcia on April 13th, 2024

Advances in genomics and proteomics have provided the vaccine field with a large amount of potential target antigens, including synthetic peptides, DNA, and recombinant proteins. Although these well-defined antigens are safe, they have a very short half-life in vivo and can not always effectively elicit an immune system response when administered alone without any adjuvants. Considering the key issues in infectious disease and cancer research, scientists are dedicated to developing new and improved vaccine adjuvants such as emulsions, liposomes or nanoparticles. Micelles are core-shell nanoparticles that spontaneously self-assemble in water to form single amphiphilic (hydrophobic/hydrophilic) molecules. Micelles have been used as drug delivery vehicles, and recently micellar nanoparticles have been explored as very valuable adjuvants for vaccine delivery by encapsulation/protection of hydrophobic drugs in the core of the micelles.