Perspectives in the vaccine development against Opisthorchis viverrini liver fluke

Liver flukes, Opisthorchis viverrini, infect around 10 million individuals in Southeast Asia, alone, and cause 26,000 deaths in the region per year. Despite being classified as a Group 1 carcinogen, and presenting one of the leading causes of cholangiocarcinoma in epidemic areas, O. viverrini infection is a neglected tropical disease. Control measures were implemented in epidemic areas to limit the outspread of infection; however, prophylactic vaccines are urgently needed to protect against future reinfections. This holds especially true due to the limited curative efficacy of the approved anthelmintic drug. In this article, we have briefly summarized the recently reported information regarding hepatobiliary cancer pathogenesis, approved treatment, and control measures against infection. Further, we highlighted the progress in the identification of protective antigens against Opisthorchiasis and proposed the investigation of additional promising antigens relying on vaccine progress against related infectious parasites. We highlighted the relative efficacies of the developed preclinical vaccines, suggested alternative vaccine designs and combinations, and commented on the required immunological responses. Moreover, we also reviewed biomaterials used in vaccine delivery against O. viverrini infections, summarized all the reported vaccine design approaches against the disease, and provided future perspectives regarding vaccine development, the utilization of biomaterials, and the discovery of highly protective antigens.