Delivery of MERS antigen encapsulated in α-GalCer-bearing liposomes elicits stronger antigen-specific immune responses.
Masood Alam KhanAjamaluddin MalikAbdulmohsen M AlruweteiMohammad A AlzohairyBader Y AlhatlaniOsamah Al RugaieFahad A AlhumaydhiArif KhanPublished in: Journal of drug targeting (2022)
Alpha-Galactosylceramide (α-GalCer) effectively activates the natural killer T (NKT) cells to secrete remarkable amounts of Th1 and Th2 cytokines and therefore, acts as a potential immunoadjuvant in vaccine formulation. In the present study, we prepared α-GalCer-bearing or α-GalCer-free liposomes and loaded them with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus papain-like protease (α-GalCer-Lip-MERS-CoV PLpro or Lip-MERS-CoV PLpro). These formulations were injected in mice to investigate the antigen-specific humoral and cell-mediated immune responses. The immunisation with α-GalCer-Lip-MERS-CoV PLpro or Lip-MERS-CoV PLpro did not induce any notable toxicity in immunised mice. The results demonstrated that mice immunised with α-GalCer-Lip-MERS-CoV PLpro showed greater antigen-specific antibody titre, switching of IgG isotyping to IgG2a subclass and higher lymphocyte proliferation. Moreover, the splenocytes from α-GalCer-Lip-MERS-CoV PLpro immunised mice secreted greater levels of IFN-γ, IL-4, IL-2 and IL-12. Interestingly, a booster dose induced stronger memory immune responses in mice previously immunised with α-GalCer-Lip-MERS-CoV PLpro. In summary, α-GalCer-Lip-MERS-CoV PLpro may prove to be a promising vaccine formulation to protect the individuals against MERS-CoV infection.
Keyphrases
- respiratory syndrome coronavirus
- sars cov
- immune response
- coronavirus disease
- drug delivery
- high fat diet induced
- signaling pathway
- stem cells
- oxidative stress
- induced apoptosis
- insulin resistance
- adipose tissue
- single cell
- skeletal muscle
- cancer therapy
- wild type
- cell proliferation
- bone marrow
- cell cycle arrest
- peripheral blood
- wound healing
- pi k akt