Nonenveloped Virus-Like Particles: A Promising Antigen-Delivery Strategy for the Induction of Antitumor Immune Responses

Abstract

The use of antigen delivery systems is essential for inducing antitumor immune responses. Among these, virus-like particles (VLPs) increase the immunogenicity of coupled antigens to stimulate cellular and humoral immune responses. In particular, non-enveloped or capsid VLPs (cVLPs) are a promising antigen delivery system option due to their additional advantages of high production yields and low cost. This review summarizes the latest works on cVLPs in cancer vaccines, supporting cVLPs as a tumor antigen delivery system for immunotherapy and addressing some critical aspects of cVLP use such as production, assembly, decoration and immunization strategies, which can improve the effectiveness of cancer vaccines based on cVLPs.