Friedrich Brian M, Beasley David W C, Rudra Jai S
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston 77555, TX, USA; Sealy Center for Vaccine Development, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston 77555, TX, USA.
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston 77555, TX, USA; Sealy Center for Vaccine Development, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston 77555, TX, USA.
Vaccine. 2016 Nov 4;34(46):5479-5482. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2016.09.044. Epub 2016 Sep 23.
A crucial issue in vaccine development is to balance safety with immunogenicity. The low immunogenicity of most subunit antigens warrants a search for adjuvants able to stimulate both cell-mediated and humoral immunity. In recent years, successful applications of nanotechnology and bioengineering in the field of vaccine development have enabled the production of novel adjuvant technologies. In this work, we investigated totally synthetic and supramolecular peptide hydrogels as novel vaccine adjuvants in conjunction with the immunoprotective envelope protein domain III (EIII) of West Nile virus as an immunogen in a mouse model. Our results indicate that, compared to the clinically approved adjuvant alum, peptide hydrogel adjuvanted antigen elicited stronger antibody responses and conferred significant protection against mortality after virus challenge. The high chemical definition and biocompatibility of self-assembling peptide hydrogels makes them attractive as immune adjuvants for the production of subunit vaccines against viral and bacterial infections where antibody-mediated protection is desirable.
疫苗研发中的一个关键问题是在安全性和免疫原性之间取得平衡。大多数亚单位抗原的免疫原性较低，这就需要寻找能够刺激细胞介导免疫和体液免疫的佐剂。近年来，纳米技术和生物工程在疫苗研发领域的成功应用使得新型佐剂技术得以产生。在这项工作中，我们研究了完全合成的超分子肽水凝胶作为新型疫苗佐剂，并将西尼罗河病毒的免疫保护性包膜蛋白结构域III（EIII）作为免疫原，在小鼠模型中进行实验。我们的结果表明，与临床批准的佐剂明矾相比，肽水凝胶佐剂化抗原引发了更强的抗体反应，并在病毒攻击后对死亡率提供了显著保护。自组装肽水凝胶的高化学确定性和生物相容性使其成为有吸引力的免疫佐剂，可用于生产针对病毒和细菌感染的亚单位疫苗，在这些感染中抗体介导的保护是可取的。
