Applications of Gold Nanoparticles in Nanomedicine: Recent Advances in Vaccines †

Carabineiro, Sónia Alexandra Correia

The use of gold nanoparticles in HIV vaccine development has been recently reviewed by several authors [94] . After more than 30 years since the discovery of HIV in 1983, no effective vaccine is yet available [24, [95] [96] [97] . Some histocompatibility complex molecules expressed on the surface of HIV are potential targets for neutralizing antibodies [98] , as shown in Figure 4 . Among the few broadly neutralizing HIV monoclonal antibodies, 2G12 is the only carbohydrate-directed that is able to recognize a cluster of high-mannose glycans on the viral envelope glycoprotein gp120 [95] . This type of glycan is thus envisaged as a target to develop an HIV vaccine capable of eliciting 2G12-like antibodies. Gold nanoparticles coated with self-assembled monolayers of synthetic oligomannosides, which are present in gp120, are able to bind 2G12 with high affinity and to interfere with 2G12/gp120 binding [95] . Thiol-terminated oligosaccharides have been attached on gold nanoparticles and have been used in attempts to develop an HIV vaccine [99] . Two nanometer gold glyconanoparticles were coated with synthetic partial structures of several mannosides [100] . The assembly of the antennas of the gp120 high-mannose type glycan on gold glyconanoparticles provided superior binding to the anti-HIV antibody 2G12, which could help in the design of a carbohydrate-based vaccine against HIV.