Abstract
The skin is a highly accessible organ and thus provides an attractive immune environment for cost-effective, simple, and needle-free delivery of vaccines and immunomodulators. In this study, we pretreated mouse skin with an anionic surfactant, sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), for a short period of time (10 min) followed by epicutaneous vaccination with hen egg lysozyme antigen. We demonstrated for the first time that pretreatment of skin with surfactant SLS significantly enhances the production of antibody to hen egg lysozyme. Short term pretreatment with SLS disorganized the stratum corneum, extracted partial lamellar lipids, induced the maturation of Langerhans cells, and did not result in epidermis thickening. To reveal the mechanism underlying these changes, particularly at the molecular level, we used a novel proteomic technique using ultrafiltration capillaries and mass spectrometry to identify in vivo proteins/peptides secreted in the SLS-pretreated skin. Two secretory proteins, named as calcium-binding protein S100A9 and thymosin beta4, were identified by this novel technique. These two proteins thus may provide new insight into the enhancing effect of surfactants on skin vaccination.
Highlights
From the ‡Department of Dermatology, §Skin Diseases Research Center, ¶Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology and ¶Comprehensive Cancer Center Mass Spectrometry Shared Facility, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
Elicitation of Antibody to hen egg lysozyme (HEL) by Skin Vaccination In an attempt to investigate whether mice immunized epicutaneously with HEL could elicit antibody, we spread HEL (100 μg/μl) over pre-shaved abdominal skin of ICR mice with a piece of the 3M Tegaderm patch for one hour
Mass Spectrometric Identification of the Capillary Ultrafiltration (CUF) Probe-collected Proteins Comparing the MALDI-TOF MS spectra of samples collected from phosphate buffer saline (PBS)- and sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS)-treated mouse ears (Fig. 7), we found that at least four peptide peaks (1399.6, 1428.6, 1609.8, and 1681.8 m/z) were exclusively present in the sample collected from the PBS-treated group (Fig. 7A)
Summary
From the ‡Department of Dermatology, §Skin Diseases Research Center, ¶Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology and ¶Comprehensive Cancer Center Mass Spectrometry Shared Facility, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA. Two secretory proteins, named as calcium binding protein S100A9 and thymosin β4, were identified by this novel technique These two proteins may provide new insight into the enhancing effect of surfactants on skin vaccination. One mechanism that has been proposed is that these antigens activate Langerhans cells in the skin which migrate to draining lymph nodes to orchestrate robust systemic immune responses [2] The presence of both significant associated lymphoid tissue and immunocompetent cells suggests that skin might be an effective non-invasive route for vaccination. Brushing is difficult, if not impossible, to standardize for the future clinical use To address this concern, we pretreated skin with various concentrations of surfactant SLS, washed away and followed by topical application of antigens. One potential drawback to the above technique is that surfactant-based vesicles remain in the host following vaccination, possibly resulting in adverse effects
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
