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

Carabineiro, Sónia Alexandra Correia

Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver that may originate a yellow color in the skin and eyes and abdominal pain, among other symptoms that can be caused by viruses or from the abuse of alcohol and certain medications. There are several types of viral hepatitis: types A, B, C, D, and E. Hepatitis A and E are often spread by contaminated food and water, while hepatitis B is mainly sexually transmitted but may pass from mother to child during pregnancy. Types B and C are usually spread through infected blood. Hepatitis D can only infect people already infected with hepatitis B. Figure 5 shows a comparison between the viruses. Concerning hepatitis B vaccine research, HBsAg-DNA can be introduced into the host by intramuscular or intradermal route using a needle with syringe. An alternative is using gene-gun, Biolistic ® , PowderJectTM, Accell ® , or particle-mediated DNA delivery, when DNA-coated microscopic gold particles are transported using a needle-free device directly into the epidermic cells [75] . Micron-size gold particles were used as particulate adjuvants and coinjected intradermally with plasmid DNA encoding the HBsAg into mice [107, 108] . The presence of gold particles accelerated the antibody response significantly, increased the percentage of responding animals, and shortened the time taken to reach maximal antibody titers by two weeks. These immunizations were effective in protecting mice against tumor challenge with cancer cells, expressing HBsAg as a surrogate cancer antigen. Good results were also obtained with minipigs [109] .