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Comparative study of the immunogenicity of two synthetic nanovaccines based on self-assembling peptides
* 1 , 2 , 2 , 2 , 2
1  Department of Chemistry, Université du Québec à Montréal
2  Department of chemistry, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Academic Editor: William D. Lubell

Abstract:

Subunit vaccines are safer than live-attenuated or inactivated vaccines. However, their limited immunogenicity and susceptibility to metabolic degradation require strong adjuvants and/or conjugation to delivery systems to induce a robust, antigen-specific immune response. Interestingly, synthetic peptides can be useful and polyvalent building blocks for development of self-adjuvanted nanoparticles. Recent studies showed that amphiphilic peptides can increase antigen density, promote cellular uptake by APCs and activate T and B lymphocytes. Additionally, short peptide monomers forming cross-β-sheet fibrils such as I10 have shown potential in inducing strong immunity against the grafted epitope. However, direct comparison of the intrinsic immunogenicity of peptide amphiphilic cylindrical micelles and cross-β peptide fibrils has never been performed. In this work, the amphiphilic peptide C16-V3A3K3(PA) and the I10 β-peptide were each linked to two epitope models, OVA253-266 and OVA323-339, able to polarize the resulting adaptive immune response differently. Biophysical analysis showed that both nanoplatforms formed β-sheet-rich nanofilament structures with epitopes exposed on their surfaces. Intramuscular administration in mice led to a strong, antigen-specific humoral response without additional adjuvants. This study illuminates the potential of synthetic self-assembling nanoplatforms as universal antigen carriers, enabling the rapid development of vaccines to combat infectious diseases.

Keywords: nanovaccines; adjuvant; peptide self-assembly; immune response; supramolecular structure

 
 
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