Emerging nanotechnology approaches for pulmonary delivery of vaccines

Pulmonary immunization has been recently explored as a suitable substitute for parenteral vaccination. Vaccine administered via pulmonary route can induce both systemic and local mucosal immune responses. The extensive population of dendritic cells (DC) in the respiratory epithelial lining and hub of macrophages (interstitium and the alveoli) plays important roles in the induction of strong immune response. There are several factors which have restricted the effectiveness of pulmonary immunization including poor deposition of the antigen at the alveolar region, low absorption from the epithelial barriers in the peripheral airways and the central lungs and the presence of a mucociliary escalator in the central and upper lung, which rapidly removes antigens or particles from the central respiratory tract. In past few years a number of highly effective novel nanocarriers have been developed for safe and effective vaccine delivery via pulmonary route. This chapter gives an overview of every aspects of pulmonary delivery of vaccines.