Project

MucoVac - An oral vaccination platform based on APN targeting

Acronym
MucoVac
Code
179B05624
Duration
01 March 2025 → 28 February 2027
Funding
Regional and community funding: IWT/VLAIO
Research disciplines
  • Agricultural and food sciences
    • Animal health engineering
    • Veterinary immunology
Keywords
oral vaccine E. coli diarrhea Aminopeptidase N antibody constructs
 
Project description

Aminopeptidase N-mediated delivery of vaccine antigens to the gut immune system holds great promise to develop efficacious oral vaccines to combat gut pathogens in pigs. This project builds further on previous data showing protective immunity against infection with pathogenic E. coli induced by oral vaccination of piglets with aminopeptidase N-targeted vaccine antigens. In this project, we aim to optimize the design of our aminopeptidase N-targeted vaccine candidate to increase its manufacturability as well as to improve its immunogenicity. The latter will allow to obtain a sufficient efficacy to protect pigs against pathogenic E. coli infection in field conditions. The generated data will be used to increase the valorisation potential of our aminopeptidase N gut delivery platform.