Immune-complex mimetics (ICMs): an adjuvant free approach to controlling the major diseases for which no vaccines are available (360G-Wellcome-109469_Z_15_Z)

For many serious diseases, including malaria, there are currently no effective vaccines. Many vaccines under development also require co-administration with adjuvants that often have ill-defined mechanisms of action, are difficult to manufacture, are often unstable, and can have toxic side effects in humans. Richard Pleass, from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, has developed, patented, and licensed a platform technology that is able to cross-link immune receptors, found on antigen presenting cells, with high specificity and avidity. This Pathfinder Award will allow Richard and his team to determine if this technology can be repurposed for the delivery of antigens directly to dendritic cells for use in vaccines. It is hoped that this approach will dispense with the need for adjuvants accompanying vaccines, by mimicking the natural immune-potentiating effects of immune-complexes. Although immune-complex mimetics may be suitable for any disease for which vaccines are required, the Award willl use model antigens from malaria to determine if this technology is feasible for vaccines. If this proof-of-principle Award works with the malaria model antigens, the technology should also work for any ligand for which multimerisation may endow useful therapeutic or diagnostic properties.