Journal: eBioMedicine
Article Title: Intranasal recombinant protein subunit vaccine targeting TLR3 induces respiratory tract IgA and CD8 T cell responses and protects against respiratory virus infection
doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2025.105615
Figure Lengend Snippet: Intranasal administration of CAF09b adjuvanted spike protein elicits IgA responses and antigen-specific CD8 T cells in the upper respiratory tract . a) Poly (I:C) was formulated in DDA/MMG liposomes at a concentration of 12,500/2500/625 μg/mL DDA/MMG/Poly (I:C). This corresponds to a final dose of 250 μg/50 μg/12.5 μg DDA/MMG/Poly(I:C) for intranasal (i.n.) administration. The particle size (Z.ave) and polydispersity index (PDI) was measured using differential light scattering. b) A human TLR3 reporter (HEK293) cell line was used to assess delivery of Poly (I:C) in CAF09b. Cells were stimulated with Poly(I:C) alone (naked) or formulated in CAF09b at the indicated concentrations (100, 20, 4, and 0.8 μg/mL for naked Poly(I:C) and 1.67, 0.42, 0.1, 0.026, and 0.0065 μg/mL for Poly(I:C) in CAF09b). CAF04 (DDA/MMG without Poly(I:C)) was used as negative control. Secreted embryonic alkaline phosphatase produced upon TLR3 stimulation were determined using HEK-Blue™ Detection medium, measured as optical density (OD). c) The SARS-CoV-2 Spike HexaPro trimer was formulated in CAF09b adjuvant and confirmed to retain binding to ACE2 using ELISA. d) Mice were either left unvaccinated (naïve) or immunised with two doses of SARS-CoV-2 spike HexaPro trimer protein formulated in cationic liposomes (CAF®09b). The vaccine was administered as a conventional subcutaneous two dose regimen (s.c./s.c.), as subcutaneous priming followed by intranasal boosting (s.c./i.n.) or as two intranasal administrations (i.n./i.n.). Serum was sampled at 21 days after the 2nd immunisation. Created with BioRender.com . e) IgG antibody responses against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. f) Nasal wash IgA antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Data are representative of n = 6 mice per group. Similar findings were obtained in another separate experiment ( e and f ). Spike-specific CD8 T cell responses were measured by flow cytometry. Mice were injected i.v. with anti-CD45.2 to distinguish between circulating and tissue resident cells. g) CD8 T cell responses in lungs and spleen. Cells were gated as CD45− (parenchymal cells not stained by the i.v., injected anti-CD45 antibody), CD8+ (to identify CD8 T cells), CD44+ (activation marker) SARS-CoV-2 spike-specific, using a tetramer (VNFNFNGL). Left panel shows representative stainings of lung cells. Data were pooled from two experiments with n = 6 mice and n = 9 mice, respectively. h) CD8 T cell responses in nasal-associated lymphoid tissue. The experiment was performed once and contained n = 9 mice. To obtain enough cells for analysis, each NALT data point was a pool from three mice. Mean ± SEM is displayed. Statistically significant differences are indicated by ∗ or ∗∗ (one-way ANOVA, comparing the mean of each column with the mean of the s.c./s.c. group, p < 0.05 or 0.01, respectively). There were no statistically significant differences among groups unless indicated.
Article Snippet: One million cells were treated with Fc-block (BD Biosciences) and stained in PBS +1% FBS with cocktails of antibodies against the following surface proteins: CD45.2 FITC (104, BD 553772), CD4 APC-Cy7 (RM4-5, 1:600, eBioscience 47-0042-82), CD4 BV786 (GK1.5, 1:200, BD 563331), CD8a PerCP-Cy5.5 (53-6.7, 1:600, eBioscience 45-0081-82), CD8a BV421 (53-6.7, 1:600, Biolegend 100738), CD44 APC (IM7, 1:600, BD 559250), CD44 APC-Cy7 (IM7, 1:200, eBioscience 47-0441-82), CD62L PerCP-Cy5.5 (MEL-14, 1:200, BD 560513), CD19 PE-Cy7 (1D3, 1:600, BD 552854), CD11c PE-Cy7 (HL3, 1:200, BD 558079), and I-A/I-E BV605 (M5/114.15.2, 1:200, BD 563413).
Techniques: Liposomes, Concentration Assay, Negative Control, Produced, Adjuvant, Binding Assay, Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay, Flow Cytometry, Injection, Staining, Activation Assay, Marker