A minimalist supramolecular nanovaccine forcefully propels the Tfh cell and GC B cell responses

Abstract

Compared with vaccines comprising inactivated or attenuated whole pathogens, the subunit vaccines based on protein antigens are safer and easier to manufacture. Yet subunit vaccines usually exhibit weak and nondurable immune responses, which is mainly due to their poor uptake by antigen-presenting cells. To address this issue, we develop a fluorinated aromatic peptide (F-AP), in which electronegativity of fluorine is to enhance its affinity with antigens and ability of transmembrane. In mice model, F-AP demonstrated over 4-fold and 501-fold higher antibody titers than AP and conventional aluminum adjuvant, respectively. Consistent with the antibody responses, F-AP greatly promoted the proliferation of T follicular helper cell and mature B cell. Intriguingly, conventional type 1 dendritic cells (cDC1) were also increased in lymph nodes with F-AP vaccination. And antigens localization experiments showed that F-AP help antigens escape from cell lysosomes, indicating that F-AP could potentially induce cellular immune responses through cDC1′s antigen cross-presentation function. Collectively, the data suggest that simple fluorine group modification on aromatic peptide, F-AP, could improve the immune response of subunit antigens. Thus, fluoridation strategy may provide a novel approach for nanomaterials enhancing the vaccination immune response of vaccines or immunotherapies.