| abstract |
Provided are nanoparticle-based vaccines that have an adjuvant coating attached to the external surface thereof to serve as an immunopotentiator. Most advantageously the nanoparticle vaccines have IgM antibodies attached to the external surface of an antigenic nanoparticle to serve as an immunopotentiator. The IgM may be attached by specifically binding to an epitope of the underlying nanoparticle including, but not limited to, the target vaccine immunogen. Since, however, the availability of specific IgMs is limited and less than the number of potential antigens that may be used as vaccines, attaching an IgM of the disclosure may require a hapten molecule that can be attached to the nanoparticle. By selecting a hapten that can be specifically recognized and bound by an IgM, it is possible to attach the hapten-specific IgM to a wide-variety of vaccine antigens. |