Nucleic acids have shown great promise as a immunomodulatory agents for treating diseases such as cancer or autoimmune diseases. However, demonstrating efficacy in clinical trials has been lacking due to the inability to safely increase potency. Spherical nucleic acids (SNAs) are a structural class of nanoparticles developed in our group for the modulation of both innate and adaptive immune systems. SNAs are characterized by the dense, spherically oriented oligonucleotide shell around a nanoparticle template; and this arrangement of oligonucleotides leads to the emergent properties of SNAs, such as cellular entry without the need for transfection reagents and stability against nuclease activity. Additionally, the oligonucleotides can be specifically tailored to activate or inhibit different toll-like receptors (TLRs) such as TLR4, TLR7 and TLR9. Most recent work has demonstrated the ability to activate antigen-presenting cells (APCs) through TLRs while co-delivering a tumor specific antigen for presentation to activated CD8<sup>+</sup> T cells, which generate a specific cellular response against cancer. Further, we have developed SNAs that can inhibit the innate immune system through dual suppressor of TLR4 and TLR9. The modulate nature of SNAs enables us to design the oligonucleotide shell to engage with specific TLRs without changing the overall structure. This provides the ability to rapidly design, synthesize, and evaluate numerous types of SNAs, which will lead to a large library of nanostructures for immunomodulation in various types of diseases.<br/>

Modular nanostructures for immunotherapy

253rd National Meeting (2017)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.