Table 1 Advantages and disadvantages of different types of nanovaccines

Polymeric NPs

• Biodegradable and biocompatible

• Water-soluble, non-toxic

• Inexpensive

• Easy to manufacture

• Stable

• Short half-life

• Low encapsulation efficiency

• Insufficient drug loading capacity

• Weak solubility

[147, 150, 151, 175]

Lipid NPs

• Good biocompatibility

• Be able to enclose various agents

• Have versatility, and plasticity

• Low toxicity

• Increased drug dosages

• Synthesized in a wide range of sizes, compositions, and lipid loads

• Not Stable

• Lipid dispersion gelation

• Hydrophilic drug loading capacity is limited

• Low encapsulation efficiency

[102, 196, 353,354,355]

Gold NPs

• Biocompatible,

• Physiologically stable

• Easy to manipulate and manufacture

• NP surface can be modified with diverse molecules

• Lower systemic toxicity

• Higher tumor accumulation

• Faster kidney clearance

• Tunable chemical reactivities

• Non-porous

• Non-biodegradable

• Bioaccumulation

[211, 215, 356,357,358]

Silver NPs

• Anticancer activity

• Antibacterial properties

• Anti-inflammatory

• Chemical stability

• Ease of synthesis

• Toxicity to mammalian cells

[241, 243, 258, 359]

Silica NPs

• Excellent chemical stability

• Good biocompatibility

• Facile surface modification

• Easy to control the size, shape, and structure

• High porosity

• Self‐adjuvanticity

• Difficult in preparation of well-ordered

• Scattered size distribution

• Formation of stable-colloidal suspensions

[106, 212, 261, 268, 360]

Calcium phosphate NPs

• Safety, biocompatibility and stability

• pH-dependent solubility

• Surface modification

• High adjuvanticity

• High biodegradability

• Greater affinity to biological materials

• Low antigen loading capacity

• Rapid aggregation

[276, 294]

Virus-like particles

• Large drug-loading

• Antigenicity, safe

• Adjuvant activity

• Without causing infections

• Targeted delivery

• Considerable safety

• Pain

• Swelling after injection

• Polydispersed particle size

• Limited encapsidation

[302,303,304]

Immunostimulating complexes

• More immunogenic

• High stability

• Less toxicity

• Strong adjuvant properties

• Do not have hemolytic activity

• Limits the binding of neutral or negatively charged hydrophilic antigens

• Exert no depot release profile

[113, 319, 320, 331, 361]