USE OF GOLD NANOPARTICLE CONJUGATES FOR CANCER IMMUNOTHERAPY
R. D. Vyrshchikov, S. A. Staroverov, L. A. Dykman
Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Plants and Microorganisms, Saratov Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Abstract
Nanomaterials in medicine have attracted considerable attention due to their potential to improve oncological imaging and therapy. Being biocompatible and low in toxicity, gold nanoparticles are highly effective in cancer treatment. Studying how the immune response develops when gold nanoparticles act as adjuvants allows us to determine their potential in the development of next-generation vaccines. Gold nanoparticles conjugated to tumor markers can be used to create prototypes of prophylactic and therapeutic antitumor vaccines. Gold nanoparticles in vaccines significantly increase antigen stability, its accumulation in lymph nodes, and uptake by antigen-presenting cells. The use of such particles in anticancer vaccines to enhance their efficacy appears promising. Conjugates based on gold nanoparticles and tumor antigens isolated from murine hepatoma MH22a cells were obtained and characterized. Laboratory animals were immunized with the resulting conjugates. The mice were administered the drug intraperitoneally twice, 10 days apart. Increased respiratory and proliferative activity of peritoneal macrophages and spleen cells was observed following immunization with the resulting conjugate. Seven days after the final immunization, the mice were challenged with MH22a neoplastic cells. Five of the six animals immunized with the nanoconjugates showed no signs of tumor growth over 24 days. Thus, the fundamental feasibility of using gold nanoparticles in combination with tumor antigens for antitumor vaccination has been demonstrated for the first time. Tumor antigen-based antitumor vaccines being developed for cancer treatment can be significantly optimized by incorporating gold nanoparticles as adjuvants.
The work was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation, project No. 25-24-00694.
Speaker
R. D. Vyrshchikov
Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Plants and Microorganisms, Saratov Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Россия
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