Multiple antigen presenting system (MAPS): state of the art and potential applications.

Introduction: Technological innovations have been instrumental in advancing vaccine design and protective benefit. Improvements in the safety, tolerability, and efficacy/effectiveness profiles have profoundly reduced vaccine-preventable global disease morbidity and mortality. Here we present an original vaccine platform, the Multiple Antigen Presenting System (MAPS), that relies on high-affinity interactions between a biotinylated polysaccharide (PS) and rhizavidin-fused pathogen-specific proteins. MAPS allows for flexible combinations of various PS and protein components.

Areas covered: This narrative review summarizes the underlying principles of MAPS and describes its applications for vaccine design against bacterial and viral pathogens in non-clinical and clinical settings.

Expert opinion: The utilization of high-affinity non-covalent biotin-rhizavidin interactions in MAPS allows for combining multiple PS and disease-specific protein antigens in a single vaccine. The modular design enables a simplified exchange of vaccine components. Published studies indicate that MAPS technology may support enhanced immunogenic breadth (covering more serotypes, inducing B- and T-cell responses) beyond that which may be elicited via PS- or protein-based conjugate vaccines. Importantly, a more detailed characterization of MAPS-based candidate vaccines is warranted, especially in clinical studies. It is anticipated that MAPS-based vaccines could be adapted and leveraged across numerous diseases of global public health importance.