Nanoparticles for providing immune responses against infectious agents

1. A method of preparing nanoparticles which comprise a core including metal and/or semiconductor atoms, wherein the core is covalently linked to a plurality of ligands, the ligands including:

(a) a first ligand comprising a carbohydrate residue capable of stimulating an innate immune response;

(b) a second ligand comprising a T cell helper peptide;

(c) a third ligand comprising a danger signal selected from the group consisting of endotoxins, heat-shock proteins, nucleotides, reactive oxygen intermediates, extracellular-matrix breakdown products, neuromediators, cytokines and lipid moieties, wherein said danger signal is a toll-like receptor agonist; and

(d) one or more ligands capable of producing a specific response to a target infectious agent, said nanoparticles further comprising a corona of ligands comprising carbohydrate groups capable of shielding the nanoparticles from recognition by an immune system, so that the immune response produced by the nanoparticles in vivo is specific to the target infectious agent,

by conjugating one or more of the ligands to the nanoparticle core, the method comprising: (i) derivatizing the one or more ligands with a linker; and (ii) reacting the linker derivatized ligands with reactants for producing the core of the nanoparticle so that during self-assembly of the nanoparticles, the nanoparticle cores attach to the ligands via the linker.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the linker group comprises a thiol group, an alkyl group, a glycol group or a peptide group.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the linker group comprises C2-C15 alkyl and/or C2-C15 glycol.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the linker group is C2-C15 alkyl or hexaethylene glycol-C11 alkyl.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reaction mixture comprises the one or more linker derivatized ligands, a salt of the metal and/or semiconductor atoms and a reducing agent to produce the nanoparticles.