Synthetic subunit vaccines can improve safety and efficacy relative to live, attenuated or killed vaccines. Such vaccines, however, often fail to elicit robust activation of cytotoxic T lymphocytes an essential response for cellular immunity against intracellular pathogens or cancer. To activate cytotoxic T lymphocytes dendritic cells must display antigens to CD8+ T cells on major histocompatibility complex class I molecules via cross-presentation. We are using the ring opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) to generate modular polymer scaffolds to probe several mechanisms involved in routing antigens towards cross-presentation. The ability to vary polymer structure systematically provides the means to optimize dendritic cell uptake, antigen processing, and activation of dendritic cells. By dissecting the contributions of different mechanisms, we expect to generate a blueprint for the design of highly effective subunit vaccines.

Polymeric antigens targeting dendritic cells for immunity

256th National Meeting (2018)

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