Pullulan-Coated Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Blood-Stage Malaria Vaccine Delivery

alkiviadis.1961 shared this article with you from Inoreader Vaccines, Vol. 8, Pages 651: Pullulan-Coated Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Blood-Stage Malaria Vaccine Delivery Via Vaccines Vaccines, Vol. 8, Pages 651: Pullulan-Coated Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Blood-Stage Malaria Vaccine Delivery Vaccines doi: 10.3390/vaccines8040651 Authors: Liam Powles Kirsty L. Wilson Sue D. Xiang Ross L. Coppel Charles Ma Cordelia Selomulya Magdalena Plebanski Vaccines against blood-stage malaria often aim to induce antibodies to neutralize parasite entry into red blood cells, interferon gamma (IFNγ) produced by T helper 1 (Th1) CD4+ T cells or interleukin 4 (IL-4) produced by T helper 2 (Th2) cells to provide B cell help. One vaccine delivery method for suitable putative malaria protein antigens is the use of nanoparticles as vaccine carriers. It has been previously shown that antigen conjugated to inorganic nanoparticles in the viral-particle size range (~40–60 nm) can induce protective antibodies and T cells against malaria antigens in a rodent malaria challenge model. Herein, it is shown that biodegradable pullulan-coated iron oxide nanoparticles (pIONPs) can be synthesized in this same size range. The pIONPs are non-toxic and do not induce conventional pro-inflammatory cytokines in vitro and in vivo. We show that murine blood-stage antigen MSP4/5 from Plasmodium yoelii could be chemically conjugated to pIONPs a nd the use of these conjugates as immunogens led to the induction of both specific antibodies and IFNγ CD4+ T cells reactive to MSP4/5 in mice, comparable to responses to MSP4/5 mixed with classical adjuvants (e.g., CpG or Alum) that preferentially induce Th1 or Th2 cells individually. These results suggest that biodegradable pIONPs warrant further exploration as carriers for developing blood-stage malaria vaccines. View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.