Conjugation of a peptide autoantigen to gold nanoparticles for intradermally administered antigen specific immunotherapy

Dul, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0192-2280, Nikolic, T., Stefanidou, M., McAteer, M.A., Williams, P., Mous, J., Roep, B.O., Kochba, E., Levin, Y., Peakman, M., Wong, F.S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2812-8845, Dayan, C.M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6557-3462, Tatovic, D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3879-2686, Coulman, S.A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1277-7584 and Birchall, J.C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8521-6924 2019. Conjugation of a peptide autoantigen to gold nanoparticles for intradermally administered antigen specific immunotherapy. International Journal of Pharmaceutics 562 , pp. 303-312. 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2019.03.041

Preview

PDF - Accepted Post-Print Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (2MB) | Preview

Abstract

Antigen specific immunotherapy aims to tolerise patients to specific autoantigens that are responsible for the pathology of an autoimmune disease. Immune tolerance is generated in conditions where the immune response is suppressed and thus gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are an attractive drug delivery platform due to their anti-inflammatory effects and their potential to facilitate temporal and spatial delivery of a peptide autoantigen in conjunction with pro-tolerogenic elements. In this study we have covalently attached an autoantigen, currently under clinical evaluation for the treatment of type 1 diabetes (PIC19-A3 peptide), to AuNPs to create nanoscale (<5 nm), negatively charged (−40 to −60 mV) AuNP-peptide complexes for immunotherapy. We also employ a clinically approved microneedle delivery system, MicronJet600, to facilitate minimally-invasive intradermal delivery of the nanoparticle constructs to target skin-resident antigen presenting cells, which are known to be apposite target cells for immunotherapy. The AuNP-peptide complexes remain physically stable upon extrusion through microneedles and when delivered into ex vivo human skin they are able to diffuse rapidly and widely throughout the dermis (their site of deposition) and, perhaps more surprisingly, the overlying epidermal layer. Intracellular uptake was extensive, with Langerhans cells proving to be the most efficient cells at internalising the AuNP-peptide complex (94% of the local population within the treated region of skin). In vitro studies showed that uptake of the AuNP-peptide complexes by dendritic cells reduced the capacity of these cells to activate naïve T cells. This indicator of biological functionality encourages further development of the AuNP-peptide formulation, which is now being evaluated in clinical trials.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Pharmacy Medicine
Additional Information:	Released with a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	0378-5173
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	28 March 2019
Date of Acceptance:	18 March 2019
Last Modified:	07 Nov 2023 20:26
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/121245

Citation Data

Cited 27 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item