The use of nanoparticles for developing vaccines has become a routine process for researchers and pharmaceutical companies. Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) are chemical inert, have low toxicity, and are easy to modify and functionalize, making them an attractive choice for nanovaccine development. GNPs are modified for diagnostics and detection of many pathogens. The biocompatibility and biodistribution properties of GNPs render them ideal for use in clinical settings. They have excellent immune modulatory and adjuvant properties. They have been used as the antigen carrier for the delivery system to a targeted site. Tagging them with antibodies can direct the drug or antigen-carrying GNPs to specific tissues or cells. The physicochemical properties of the GNP, together with its dynamic immune response based on its size, shape, surface charge, and optical properties, make it a suitable candidate for vaccine development. The clear outcome of modulating dendritic cells, T and B lymphocytes, which trigger cytokine release in the host, indicates GNPs’ efficiency in combating pathogens. The high titer of IgG and IgA antibody subtypes and their enhanced capacity to neutralize pathogens are reported in multiple studies on GNP-based vaccine development. The major focus of this review is to illustrate the role of GNPs in developing nanovaccines against multiple infectious agents, ranging from viruses to bacteria and parasites. Although the use of GNPs has its shortcomings and a low but detectable level of toxicity, their benefits warrant investing more thought and energy into the development of novel vaccine strategies.

Optical biosensors (OB) have wide applications in bio-fields; they are valuable monitoring and detecting tools in therapy, food, defense and military industries. They also applied in environmental monitoring quality (i.e. water, soil and air). In recent years, biosensors have been applied in the early detection of number of diseases such as; alzahimer’s disease and infecting viruses. The OB detection technology is based either on label- based or label-free method. They are composed of integral physical and biological systems, which can provide sensitive analysis for bio-analytes. This chapter will shade the light over the OB principles and their applications with the focus on the surface plasmon resonance.

Seasonal influenza vaccination has different implications on the immune response depending on the comorbidities. Diabetes is one such critical disease that increases the patient’s susceptibility to influenza and suppresses vaccine efficacy and immunity. The sex of the individuals also plays a definitive role in the immune responses to both the vaccine and the infection. This study aims to understand the efficacy of the seasonal vaccine against influenza in diabetic groups and undergoing immune mechanisms in different sexes (females and males). In this study, we are reporting about a switching of the immune response of the infected and vaccinated diabetic females towards stronger Th1/Th17 responses with suppressed humoral immunity. They show increased cDC1, enhanced proinflammatory activities within T cells, CD8T activation, Th17 proliferation, and the majority of IgG2 antibody subtypes with reduced neutralization potential. Males with diabetes exhibit enhanced humoral Th2-immunity than the nondiabetic group. They exhibit higher cDC2, and DEC205 levels within them with an increase in plasma B lymphocytes, higher IgG1 subtypes in plasma cells, and influenza-hemagglutinin-specific IgG titer with stronger virus neutralization potential. Males with diabetes recovered better than the females as observed from the changes in their body weight. This study highlights the critical immune mechanisms and sex-specific swapping of their preferred immune response pathways against influenza after vaccination during diabetes. We propose a need for a sex-specific customized vaccine regimen to be implemented against influenza for individuals having diabetes to exploit the manifested strength and weakness in their protective immunity.

The growing market of cell therapy medicinal products (CTMPs) and biopharmaceuticals demand effective cryopreservation with greater safety, of which the currently available cryoprotective agents [CPAs (e.g., dimethyl sulfoxide, glycerol, trehalose, etc.)] alone are unable to provide. This is due to the need of applying high concentration of CPAs to achieve verification that concomitant oxidative damages. Formulating cocktail of compounds with anti-freezing and antioxidants properties found to be advantageous to overcome the resultant damages. Each cocktail, however, demonstrate overlapping and/or unique protective and modulation effect patterns. The advance technology and research tools (e.g., OMICs) provide a deep insight on how the formulation of cryomedia can influence the cellular pathways and molecular interactions. In fact, this shed the light over the uniqueness of cryomedia formulation and how can they serve various application purposes.