1
|
Ding D, Gao R, Lei Y, Liu J, Zhou C, Wen Y, Zhou S, Guo J, Li T. Synergistic immune augmentation enabled by covalently conjugating TLR4 and NOD2 agonists. Eur J Med Chem 2024; 278:116792. [PMID: 39217861 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2024.116792] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2024] [Revised: 08/14/2024] [Accepted: 08/22/2024] [Indexed: 09/04/2024]
Abstract
Enhancing the efficacy of subunit vaccines relies significantly on the utilization of potent adjuvants, particularly those capable of triggering multiple immune pathways. To achieve synergistic immune augmentation by Toll-like receptor 4 agonist (TLR4a) and nucleotide-binding oligomerization-domain-containing protein 2 agonist (NOD2a), in this work, we conjugated RC529 (TLR4a) and MDP (NOD2a) to give RC529-MDP, and evaluated its adjuvanticity for OVA antigen. Compared to the unconjugated RC529+MDP, RC529-MDP remarkably enhanced innate immune responses with 6.8-fold increase in IL-6 cytokine, and promoted the maturation of antigen-presenting cells (APCs), possibly because of the conjugation of multiple agonists ensuring their delivery to the same cell and activation of various signaling pathways within that cell. Furthermore, RC529-MDP improved OVA-specific antibody response, T cells response and the memory T cells ratio relative to the unconjugated mixture. Therefore, covalently conjugating TLR4 agonist and NOD2 agonist was an effective strategy to enhance immune responses, providing the potential to design and develop more effective vaccines.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Dong Ding
- National Key Laboratory of Green Pesticide, International Joint Research Center for Intelligent Biosensing Technology and Health, College of Chemistry, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, China
| | - Runing Gao
- State Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Carbohydrate-Based Drug Research Center, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201203, China
| | - Yujuan Lei
- National Key Laboratory of Green Pesticide, International Joint Research Center for Intelligent Biosensing Technology and Health, College of Chemistry, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, China
| | - Jianing Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Carbohydrate-Based Drug Research Center, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201203, China
| | - Chengkai Zhou
- State Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Carbohydrate-Based Drug Research Center, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201203, China
| | - Yu Wen
- National Key Laboratory of Green Pesticide, International Joint Research Center for Intelligent Biosensing Technology and Health, College of Chemistry, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, China
| | - Shihao Zhou
- National Key Laboratory of Green Pesticide, International Joint Research Center for Intelligent Biosensing Technology and Health, College of Chemistry, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, China
| | - Jun Guo
- National Key Laboratory of Green Pesticide, International Joint Research Center for Intelligent Biosensing Technology and Health, College of Chemistry, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, China.
| | - Tiehai Li
- State Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Carbohydrate-Based Drug Research Center, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201203, China.
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Baljon J, Kwiatkowski AJ, Pagendarm HM, Stone PT, Kumar A, Bharti V, Schulman JA, Becker KW, Roth EW, Christov PP, Joyce S, Wilson JT. A Cancer Nanovaccine for Co-Delivery of Peptide Neoantigens and Optimized Combinations of STING and TLR4 Agonists. ACS NANO 2024; 18:6845-6862. [PMID: 38386282 PMCID: PMC10919087 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.3c04471] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2023] [Revised: 01/17/2024] [Accepted: 01/18/2024] [Indexed: 02/23/2024]
Abstract
Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) has revolutionized cancer treatment and led to complete and durable responses, but only for a minority of patients. Resistance to ICB can largely be attributed to insufficient number and/or function of antitumor CD8+ T cells in the tumor microenvironment. Neoantigen targeted cancer vaccines can activate and expand the antitumor T cell repertoire, but historically, clinical responses have been poor because immunity against peptide antigens is typically weak, resulting in insufficient activation of CD8+ cytotoxic T cells. Herein, we describe a nanoparticle vaccine platform that can overcome these barriers in several ways. First, the vaccine can be reproducibly formulated using a scalable confined impingement jet mixing method to coload a variety of physicochemically diverse peptide antigens and multiple vaccine adjuvants into pH-responsive, vesicular nanoparticles that are monodisperse and less than 100 nm in diameter. Using this approach, we encapsulated synergistically acting adjuvants, cGAMP and monophosphoryl lipid A (MPLA), into the nanocarrier to induce a robust and tailored innate immune response that increased peptide antigen immunogenicity. We found that incorporating both adjuvants into the nanovaccine synergistically enhanced expression of dendritic cell costimulatory markers, pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion, and peptide antigen cross-presentation. Additionally, the nanoparticle delivery increased lymph node accumulation and uptake of peptide antigen by dendritic cells in the draining lymph node. Consequently, nanoparticle codelivery of peptide antigen, cGAMP, and MPLA enhanced the antigen-specific CD8+ T cell response and delayed tumor growth in several mouse models. Finally, the nanoparticle platform improved the efficacy of ICB immunotherapy in a murine colon carcinoma model. This work establishes a versatile nanoparticle vaccine platform for codelivery of peptide neoantigens and synergistic adjuvants to enhance responses to cancer vaccines.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jessalyn
J. Baljon
- Department
of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235, United States
| | - Alexander J. Kwiatkowski
- Department
of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235, United States
| | - Hayden M. Pagendarm
- Department
of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235, United States
| | - Payton T. Stone
- Department
of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235, United States
| | - Amrendra Kumar
- Department
of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee 37232, United States
| | - Vijaya Bharti
- Department
of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235, United States
| | - Jacob A. Schulman
- Department
of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235, United States
| | - Kyle W. Becker
- Department
of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235, United States
| | - Eric W. Roth
- Northwestern
University Atomic and Nanoscale Characterization Experimental (NUANCE)
Center, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, United States
| | - Plamen P. Christov
- Vanderbilt
Institute of Chemical Biology, Vanderbilt
University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee 37232, United States
| | - Sebastian Joyce
- Department
of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee 37232, United States
- Department
of Veteran Affairs Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, Nashville, Tennessee 37212, United States
- Vanderbilt
Institute for Infection, Immunology, and Inflammation, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee 37232, United States
- Vanderbilt
Center for Immunobiology, Vanderbilt University
Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee 37232, United States
| | - John T. Wilson
- Department
of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235, United States
- Department
of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235, United States
- Vanderbilt
Institute of Chemical Biology, Vanderbilt
University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee 37232, United States
- Department
of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee 37232, United States
- Vanderbilt
Institute for Infection, Immunology, and Inflammation, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee 37232, United States
- Vanderbilt
Center for Immunobiology, Vanderbilt University
Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee 37232, United States
- Vanderbilt-Ingram
Cancer Center, Vanderbilt University Medical
Center, Nashville, Tennessee 37232, United States
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Guzelj S, Weiss M, Slütter B, Frkanec R, Jakopin Ž. Covalently Conjugated NOD2/TLR7 Agonists Are Potent and Versatile Immune Potentiators. J Med Chem 2022; 65:15085-15101. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.2c00808] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Samo Guzelj
- Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Matjaž Weiss
- Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Bram Slütter
- Division of BioTherapeutics, Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research, Leiden University, 2333 CC Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Ruža Frkanec
- Centre for Research and Knowledge Transfer in Biotechnology, University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Žiga Jakopin
- Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Weiss AM, Hossainy S, Rowan SJ, Hubbell JA, Esser-Kahn AP. Immunostimulatory Polymers as Adjuvants, Immunotherapies, and Delivery Systems. Macromolecules 2022; 55:6913-6937. [PMID: 36034324 PMCID: PMC9404695 DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.2c00854] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2022] [Revised: 07/16/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
![]()
Activating innate immunity in a controlled manner is
necessary
for the development of next-generation therapeutics. Adjuvants, or
molecules that modulate the immune response, are critical components
of vaccines and immunotherapies. While small molecules and biologics
dominate the adjuvant market, emerging evidence supports the use of
immunostimulatory polymers in therapeutics. Such polymers can stabilize
and deliver cargo while stimulating the immune system by functioning
as pattern recognition receptor (PRR) agonists. At the same time,
in designing polymers that engage the immune system, it is important
to consider any unintended initiation of an immune response that results
in adverse immune-related events. Here, we highlight biologically
derived and synthetic polymer scaffolds, as well as polymer–adjuvant
systems and stimuli-responsive polymers loaded with adjuvants, that
can invoke an immune response. We present synthetic considerations
for the design of such immunostimulatory polymers, outline methods
to target their delivery, and discuss their application in therapeutics.
Finally, we conclude with our opinions on the design of next-generation
immunostimulatory polymers, new applications of immunostimulatory
polymers, and the development of improved preclinical immunocompatibility
tests for new polymers.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Adam M. Weiss
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago 5640 S. Ellis Ave., Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
- Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago 5735 S Ellis Ave., Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
| | - Samir Hossainy
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago 5640 S. Ellis Ave., Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
| | - Stuart J. Rowan
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago 5640 S. Ellis Ave., Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
- Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago 5735 S Ellis Ave., Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
| | - Jeffrey A. Hubbell
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago 5640 S. Ellis Ave., Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
| | - Aaron P. Esser-Kahn
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago 5640 S. Ellis Ave., Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
| |
Collapse
|