Engineering Monodisperse Particulate Vaccines to Tailor Immunological Responses

Univ Of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

This project is focused on the development of a unique GMP-compliant particle molding technology that we have pioneered called PRINT? (Particle Replication in non-wetting templates) as a delivery platform for particulate multivalent vaccines targeting influenza and Dengue viruses. PRINT provides complete control over particle size, shape and chemical composition, and enables the systematic tailoring of antigen proximity to the particle, antigen density and particle size and shape to screen and identify the optimal particle parameters to elicit enhanced immunological responses. The down-selected particle parameters will provide design rules to manufacture influenza and dengue particulate multivalent vaccines to investigate the ability to generate a complete and robust neutralizing antibody response to each antigen. Also, additional Projects within our Program will utilize these multivalent particulate vaccines to address the use of novel adjuvants to modulate the immune response. These particulate vaccines will be evaluated in a humanized mouse model to determine how to prevent infection of homotypic or all 4 dengue virus serotypes. We will combine the learning from each Project to scale-up the most promising multivalent particulate vaccines and advance these to large animal challenge studies for both influenza and dengue. Due to the immediate medical need for multivalent vaccines for influenza and dengue and the cGMP-compliant nature of our particle molding technology, the formulations can be advanced into product development for human trials.