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Evaluation of cationic polymers as carriers and adjuvants for DNA vaccines
Author(s) -
Nagarajan Lakshmi R,
Palumbo Noelle,
Tang Rupei,
Wang Chun
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.22.2_supplement.575
Subject(s) - polyethylenimine , transfection , microbiology and biotechnology , cationic polymerization , dna vaccination , antigen , chemistry , adjuvant , polyethylene glycol , cytotoxicity , ovalbumin , materials science , biology , polymer chemistry , biochemistry , immunology , plasmid , in vitro , dna , gene
The objective of this study is to evaluate polyethylenimine (PEI) alone and PEI blended with a novel diblock copolymer for their efficiency as DNA vaccine carriers and adjuvants. The diblock copolymer (51B) was composed of a polyethylene glycol segment and a cationic polymethacrylate segment. PEI alone or the blends were mixed with plasmid DNA encoding luciferase at different N:P charge ratios and tested for cytotoxicity and transfection efficiency using the DC 2.4 cell line. We found that the blends showed higher transfection efficiency than PEI alone at N:P ratio of 8 with only minimal toxicity. We next used a plasmid encoding ovalbumin (OVA) complexed with PEI or the blends and examined antigen presentation by murine bone marrow‐derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) and DC maturation. We observed that increasing concentrations of 51B in the blends resulted in higher levels of antigen presentation as measured by staining for K b ‐OVA complexes. The levels of DC maturation markers (CD80, CD86, MHC Class II and CD40) and the production of inflammatory cytokines were also higher in the presence of the blends than PEI alone. These data show that the blends not only enhance antigen expression and presentation in DCs but also have better adjuvant properties than PEI. Further studies measuring immune responses in vivo would help establish the feasibility of using these cationic polymers as carriers and adjuvants for DNA vaccines.