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Enhancement of MHC-I Antigen Presentation via Architectural Control of pH-Responsive, Endosomolytic Polymer Nanoparticles

  • Research Article
  • Theme: Nanoparticles in Vaccine Delivery
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Abstract

Protein-based vaccines offer a number of important advantages over organism-based vaccines but generally elicit poor CD8+ T cell responses. We have previously demonstrated that pH-responsive, endosomolytic polymers can enhance protein antigen delivery to major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I) antigen presentation pathways thereby augmenting CD8+ T cell responses following immunization. Here, we describe a new family of nanocarriers for protein antigen delivery assembled using architecturally distinct pH-responsive polymers. Reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization was used to synthesize linear, hyperbranched, and core-crosslinked copolymers of 2-(N,N-diethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DEAEMA) and butyl methacrylate (BMA) that were subsequently chain extended with a hydrophilic N,N-dimethylacrylamide (DMA) segment copolymerized with thiol-reactive pyridyl disulfide (PDS) groups. In aqueous solution, polymer chains assembled into 25 nm micellar nanoparticles and enabled efficient and reducible conjugation of a thiolated protein antigen, ovalbumin. Polymers demonstrated pH-dependent membrane-destabilizing activity in an erythrocyte lysis assay, with the hyperbranched and cross-linked polymer architectures exhibiting significantly higher hemolysis at pH ≤ 7.0 than the linear diblock. Antigen delivery with the hyperbranched and cross-linked polymer architecture enhanced in vitro MHC-I antigen presentation relative to free antigen, whereas the linear construct did not have a discernible effect. The hyperbranched system elicited a four- to fivefold increase in MHC-I presentation relative to the cross-linked architecture, demonstrating the superior capacity of the hyperbranched architecture in enhancing MHC-I presentation. This work demonstrates that the architecture of pH-responsive, endosomolytic polymers can have dramatic effects on intracellular antigen delivery, and offers a promising strategy for enhancing CD8+ T cell responses to protein-based vaccines.

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Acknowledgments

This research is supported by the Science and Industry Endowment Fund, the National Institutes of Health (R01EB002991 and R21EB014572), the Washington State Life Science Discovery Fund (Grant No. 2496490), the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant DGE-1256082 (S.K.), and the Irvington Institute Fellowship Program of the Cancer Research Institute (J.T.W.).

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  1. John T. Wilson

    Present address: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, Box 355061, Seattle, Washington, 98195, USA

    John T. Wilson, Salka Keller, Anthony J. Convertine & Patrick S. Stayton

  2. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) Manufacturing Flagship, Bag 10, Clayton, South Victoria, 3169, Australia

    Almar Postma, Graeme Moad, Ezio Rizzardo, Laurence Meagher & John Chiefari

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Correspondence to John Chiefari or Patrick S. Stayton.

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Guest Editor: Aliasger Salem

John T. Wilson and Almar Postma are equally contributing authors.

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Wilson, J.T., Postma, A., Keller, S. et al. Enhancement of MHC-I Antigen Presentation via Architectural Control of pH-Responsive, Endosomolytic Polymer Nanoparticles. AAPS J 17, 358–369 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1208/s12248-014-9697-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1208/s12248-014-9697-1

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