Despite decades of research, developing vaccines that can produce robust and broad protection against the many strains of influenza viruses is a challenge. Prior vaccination fails to provide protection against the new strains because influenza viruses are highly genetically and antigenically variable. Recent breakthroughs in the field have shown that targeting conserved immunogenic regions (epitopes) which are identical across many viral strains by vaccination can induce broadly protective immunity. While epitope-based immunization is highly specific, the primary challenge with this approach is that small peptide antigens are weak immunogens which do not induce robust immune responses when administered as vaccines in the naked form. Amphiphilic polymers are able to entrap a variety of potential antigens and act as adjuvants or agents that can enhance vaccine efficacy against various infectious diseases. Amphiphilic invertible polymers (AIPs), containing hydrophilic and hydrophobic fragments distributed alternately in the macromolecule, are capable of developing polymer micelles in an aqueous medium which self-assemble into micellar nanostructures with increasing polymer concentration. A hydrophilic exterior of the micellar nanostructures is composed of polar PEG chains and a hydrophobic interior is made of nonpolar PTHF or –(CH2)n– fragments. Micellization of the AIP macromolecules in an aqueous solution leads to interactions between the polymer and the peptide resulting in the formation of mixed micellar structures. The inner part of these structures consists of the hydrophobic moieties of both AIP and the peptide whereas the hydrophilic fragments of AIP and the peptide build up an exterior of the mixed AIP–peptide micellar structures. If the AIP-peptide mixed micellar structures can be effective in targeted delivery of peptides into living cells, they can be considered as candidates for developing polymer micelles-based vaccines and nanopharmaceuticals.

Mixed micellar assemblies as polymer adjuvants for peptide administration

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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