Recombinant Antibody Vaccines for Targeted Antigen Delivery: Design Principles and Immunological Applications

Vaccines that elicit durable immune responses require efficient delivery of antigen to antigen-presenting cells (APCs), in combination with appropriate contextual signals that promote immunity. Recombinant antibody vaccines are a flexible platform for antigen delivery in which monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) or antibody-derived fragments carry antigenic cargo to chosen receptors on target cells. In this review, we examine the design principles, mechanisms, and applications of recombinant antibody vaccines, with a focus on strategies targeting dendritic cells (DCs). DCs can take up, process, and present antigen, leading to effective induction of adaptive immune responses. Targeting of DCs with recombinant antibody vaccines improves the efficiency of antigen delivery and allows finetuning of responses through choice of a targeting receptor, antigen, and adjuvant. Recombinant antibody vaccines have been evaluated across a variety of immunological settings, including for vaccination against viral, bacterial, and protozoan pathogens, therapeutic cancer vaccination, and inverse vaccination to promote antigen-specific tolerance in models of autoimmune disease. Collectively, these studies demonstrate the versatile applications of recombinant antibody vaccines, although continued work is needed to define the elements most likely to support translation to the clinic. Overall, recombinant antibody vaccines provide a modular platform for targeted antigen delivery and represent a promising strategy for design of next-generation vaccines.