A Potent Vaccine Delivery System

Guangzu Zhao; Armira Azuar; Istvan Toth; Mariusz Skwarczynski

doi:10.21769/BioProtoc.3973

A Potent Vaccine Delivery System

Bio Protoc. 2021 Apr 5;11(7):e3973. doi: 10.21769/BioProtoc.3973.

Authors

Guangzu Zhao¹, Armira Azuar¹, Istvan Toth^{1

2

3}, Mariusz Skwarczynski¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia.
² Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia.
³ School of Pharmacy, The University of Queensland, Woolloongabba, Australia.

Abstract

Most vaccines require co-delivery of an adjuvant in order to generate the desired immune responses. However, many currently available adjuvants are non-biodegradable, have limited efficacy, and/or poor safety profile. Thus, new adjuvants, or self-adjuvanting vaccine delivery systems, are required. Here, we proposed a self-adjuvanting delivery system that is fully defined, biodegradable, and non-toxic. The system is produced by conjugation of polyleucine to peptide antigen, followed by self-assembly of the conjugate into nanoparticles. The protocol includes solid-phase peptide synthesis of the vaccine conjugate, purification, self-assembly and physicochemical characterization of the product. Overall, this protocol describes, in detail, the production of a well-defined and effective self-adjuvanting delivery system for peptide antigens, along with tips for troubleshooting.

Keywords: Delivery system; Particle self-assembly; Peptide synthesis; Poly (hydrophobic amino acid); Polyleucine; Secondary structure; Self-adjuvanting nanoparticles; Subunit vaccine.