Robust Immune Responses Elicited by a Hybrid Adjuvant Based on β-Glucan Particles from Yeast for the Hepatitis B Vaccine
Hui Liu 1 2 , Ziyu Meng 2 3 , Hesuiyuan Wang 2 , Shuo Zhang 1 , Zhen Huang 1 , Xiaofang Geng 1 , Rui Guo 4 , Zhenzhou Wu 2 , Zhangyong Hong 2
Affiliations
Affiliations
1
Henan Key Laboratory of Immunology and Targeted Drug, Henan Collaborative Innovation Center of Molecular Diagnosis and Laboratory Medicine, School of Laboratory Medicine, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, Henan 453003, China.
2
State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
3
NHC Key Laboratory of Hormones and Development, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Metabolic Diseases, Tianjin Medical University Chu Hsien-I Memorial Hospital & Tianjin Institute of Endocrinology, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300134, China.
4
College of Biomedical Engineering, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, Henan 453003, China.
PMID: 35014447 DOI: 10.1021/acsabm.1c00111
Abstract
The use of particulate adjuvants offers an interesting method for enhancing and modulating the immune responses elicited by vaccines. Aluminum salt (Alum) is one of the most important immune adjuvants approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in humans because of its safety and efficacy, but it lacks the capacity to induce strong cellular and mucosal immune responses. In this study, we designed an antigen delivery system that combines aluminum salts with β-glucan particles. The β-glucan-aluminum particles (GP-Al) exhibited a highly uniform size of 2-4 μm and could highly specifically target antigen-presenting cells (APCs) and strongly induce dendritic cell (DC) maturation and cytokine secretion. In vivo studies showed that both WT mice and HBV-Tg mice immunized with hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-containing GP-Al displayed high anti-HBsAg IgG titers in the serum. Furthermore, in contrast to mice receiving the antigen alone, mice immunized with the particulate adjuvant exhibited IgG2a antibody titers and higher antigen-specific IFN-γ levels in splenocytes. In conclusion, we developed GP-Al microspheres to serve as a hepatitis B vaccine to enhance both humoral and cellular immune responses, representing a safe and promising system for antigen delivery.