title: Gold nanocluster-based vaccines for dual-delivery of antigens and immunostimulatory oligonucleotides.
abstract: We here report a facile one-pot synthesis of fluorescent gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) via the peptide biomineralization method, which can elicit specific immunological responses. The as-prepared peptide-protected AuNCs (peptide-AuNCs) display strong red fluorescence, and more importantly, as compared to the peptide alone, the immune stimulatory ability of the resulting peptide-AuNCs can not only be retained, but can also be efficaciously enhanced. Moreover, through a dual-delivery of antigen peptides and cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs), the as-prepared peptide-AuNC-CpG conjugates can also act as smart self-vaccines to assist in the generation of high immunostimulatory activity, and be applied as a probe for intracellular imaging. Both in vitro and in vivo studies provide strong evidence that the AuNC-based vaccines may be utilized as safe and efficient immunostimulatory agents that are able to prevent and/or treat a variety of ailments.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Chemical Biology and State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resource Utilization, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Changchun, Jilin 130022, China. jren@ciac.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tao
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Enguo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ju
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Jinsong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ren
mesh_terms: D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic; D000818:Animals; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D002460:Cell Line; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D003596:Cytosine / Q000737:chemistry; D005260:Female; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D006147:Guanine / Q000737:chemistry; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides / Q000737:chemistry; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry; D010710:Phosphates / Q000737:chemistry; D014612:Vaccines / Q000276:immunology* / Q000633:toxicity
chemical_list: D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides; D010455:Peptides; D010710:Phosphates; D014612:Vaccines; D006147:Guanine; D006046:Gold; D003596:Cytosine