An In vivo study: Adjuvant activity of poly-n-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone-co-acrylic acid on immune responses against Melanoma synthetic peptide.

Peptides have been studied as an important class of components in medicine to control many major diseases with vaccination. Polymers as adjuvants are capable of enhancing the vaccine potential against various diseases by improving the delivery of antigens, and they reduce the booster doses of vaccines. In brief, polymers are promising candidates for peptide-based vaccine delivery platforms. The purpose of the present study was to create a possible alternative approach in the treatment of malignant melanoma and/or to prevent metastasis of melanoma. The study was designed as both an experimental and an in vivo study. We prepared a complex and covalent conjugate of MAGE-3 121-134 (L-L-K-Y-R-A-R-E-P-V-T-K-A-E) T-cell epitope as a vaccine candidate for melanoma. These conjugates were able to generate an immune response in mice after a single immunization, without the help of any external adjuvant. The peptide-polymer complexes activated the immune system in the best way and formed the highest antigen specific immune response. These results indicate the adjuvant activity of Poly(N-vinyl-2- pyrrolidone-co-acrylic acid) [P(VP-co-AA)] and the potential use of P(VP-coAA)-peptide based vaccine prototypes for future melanoma cancer vaccine formulations.

A new approach for development of vaccine against visceral leishmaniasis: Lipophosphoglycan and polyacrylic acid conjugates.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the antileishmanial vaccine effectiveness of lipophosphoglycan (LPG) and polyacrylic acids (PAA) conjugates on in vivo mice models. METHODS: LPG molecule was isolated and purified from large-scale Leishmania donovani parasite culture. Protection efficacies of LPG alone, in combination with Freund's adjuvant, in a physical mixture and in conjugate (consisting of various LPG concentrations) with PAA, were comparatively determined by various techniques, such as cultivation with the micro-culture method, assessment of in vitro infection rates of peritoneal macrophages, determination of parasite load in liver with Leishman-Donovan Units, and detection of cytokine responses. RESULTS: Obtained results demonstrated that the highest vaccine-mediated immune protection was provided by LPG-PAA conjugate due to all parameters investigated. According to the Leishman-Donovan Units results, the sharpest decline in parasite load was seen with a ratio of 81.17% when 35 µg LPG containing conjugate was applied. This value was 44.93% for the control group immunized only with LPG. Moreover, decreases in parasite load were 53.37%, 55.2% and 65.8% for the groups immunized with 10 µg LPG containing LPG-PAA conjugate, a physical mixture of the LPG-PAA, and a mixture of LPG + Freund's adjuvant, respectively. Furthermore, cytokine results supported that Th1 mediated protection occurred when mice were immunized with LPG-PAA conjugate. CONCLUSIONS: It has been demonstrated in this study that conjugate of LPG and PAA has an antileishmanial vaccine effect against visceral leishmaniasis. In this respect, the present study may lead to new vaccine approaches based on high immunogenic LPG molecule and adjuvant polymers in fighting against Leishmania infection.

Synthesis and characterization of antigenic influenza A M2e protein peptide-poly(acrylic) acid bioconjugate and determination of toxicity in vitro.

The influenza A virus is a critical public health problem that causes epidemics and pandemics, and occurs widely all over the world. Various vaccines against the virus have not provided a solution to the problem. Different approaches, particularly M2e peptide-based vaccines, are available for developing universal vaccines against influenza A. However, it is important to select a suitable carrier to obtain an effective vaccine. Accordingly, studies on the usage of various carriers are ongoing. Particularly, polymer-based carriers have gained importance due to both drug delivery and adjuvant effects. Therefore, bioconjugate of the M2e protein peptide from the influenza A virus covalent bonded with poly(acrylic) acid was synthesized in our study for the first time. The characterization was performed using size-exclusion chromatography and fluorescence spectroscopy; subsequently, it was found that the bioconjugate of the examined lower doses (0.05 and 0.5 mg/ml) have no toxic effects on human cell lines. These results suggest that, in the future, the poly(acrylic) acid bioconjugate of the M2e peptide should be studied in vivo for universal vaccine development against the influenza A virus.

Conjugation, characterization and toxicity of lipophosphoglycan-polyacrylic acid conjugate for vaccination against leishmaniasis.

Research on the conjugates of synthetic polyelectrolytes with antigenic molecules, such as proteins, peptides, or carbohydrates, is an attractive area due to their highly immunogenic character in comparison to classical adjuvants. For example, polyacrylic acid (PAA) is a weak polyelectrolyte and has been used in several biomedical applications such as immunological studies, drug delivery, and enzyme immobilization. However, to our knowledge, there are no studies that document immune-stimulant properties of PAA in Leishmania infection. Therefore, we aimed to develop a potential vaccine candidate against leishmaniasis by covalently conjugating PAA with an immunologically vital molecule of lipophosphoglycan (LPG) found in Leishmania parasites. In the study, LPG and PAA were conjugated by a multi-step procedure, and final products were analyzed with GPC and MALDI-TOF MS techniques. In cytotoxicity experiments, LPG-PAA conjugates did not indicate toxic effects on L929 and J774 murine macrophage cells. We assume that LPG-PAA conjugate can be a potential vaccine candidate, and will be immunologically characterized in further studies to prove its potential.