Chitosan, alginate, hyaluronic acid, gums, and β-glucan as potent adjuvants and vaccine delivery systems for viral threats including SARS-CoV-2: A review

Pathogen transmission is a widespread threat to global human health. Vaccines are very important during the outbreak of a pandemic. Destructive fractures caused by a sudden outbreak of COVID-19 have spurred vaccine production at an unprecedented rate. The strategy of an effective vaccine delivery system is opening up novel probabilities to make more immunization. Indeed, vaccination is the most successful way to prevent deaths from infectious diseases. In order to optimal immune response production or improvement in the effectiveness of vaccines, delivery systems or adjuvants are required. Natural polymers such as chitosan, alginate, hyaluronic acid, gums, and β-glucan with antiviral activity have good potential as adjuvant or delivery systems for vaccine formulation development and design vaccine delivery devices. According to the antiviral performance and immunomodulation of these biopolymers, they will play significant characters in the anti-COVID-19 field. In this mini-review, the recent progress in vaccine development by using biopolymers is presented which, provides a reference for their research on anti-COVID-19 drugs and vaccines.