D'Sa Sucheta, Braz Gomes Kimberly, Allotey-Babington Grace Lovia, Boyoglu Cemil, Kang Sang-Moo, D'Souza Martin J
Center for Drug Delivery Research, Vaccine Nanotechnology Laboratory, Mercer University, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA.
Center for Inflammation, Immunity & Infection, Institute for Biomedical Sciences, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA.
Vaccines (Basel). 2022 Apr 10;10(4):584. doi: 10.3390/vaccines10040584.
No approved vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections exist to date, due to challenges arising during vaccine development. There is an unmet need to explore novel approaches and a universal strategy to prevent RSV infections. Previous studies have proven the immune efficacy of virus-like particles (VLPs) consisting of RSV fusion (F) protein, yielding a highly immunogenic RSV-F VLP subunit vaccine. In this study, RSV-F VLP (with or without MPL) was added to a polymer mix and spray-dried, forming microparticles. The formulations were transdermally administered in C57BL/6 mice to evaluate vaccine efficacy. The transdermal delivery of RSV-F VLP + MPL was more effective in clearing lung viral loads and preventing weight loss after RSV challenge. At the cellular level, MPL augmented the vaccine response in microparticulate form, which was evidenced by higher serum and lung antibody titers, and lower lung viral titers in the vaccinated groups. These preliminary results validate the effectiveness of the RSV-F VLP microparticulate vaccine via the transdermal route due to its potential to trigger robust immune responses.
由于疫苗研发过程中出现的挑战，目前尚无针对呼吸道合胞病毒（RSV）感染的获批疫苗。探索预防RSV感染的新方法和通用策略的需求尚未得到满足。先前的研究已证明由RSV融合（F）蛋白组成的病毒样颗粒（VLP）具有免疫效力，从而产生了一种高度免疫原性的RSV-F VLP亚单位疫苗。在本研究中，将RSV-F VLP（含或不含MPL）添加到聚合物混合物中并进行喷雾干燥，形成微粒。将这些制剂经皮给予C57BL/6小鼠以评估疫苗效力。RSV-F VLP + MPL的经皮递送在清除肺部病毒载量和预防RSV攻击后体重减轻方面更有效。在细胞水平上，MPL增强了微粒形式的疫苗反应，这在接种组中表现为更高的血清和肺部抗体滴度以及更低的肺部病毒滴度。这些初步结果证实了RSV-F VLP微粒疫苗经皮给药途径的有效性，因为它有可能引发强大的免疫反应。
