Expression data from bone marrow derived DCs stimulated with different peptide-based nanovaccine formulations against L. infantum infection. Mus musculus

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), caused by Leishmania spp protozoan parasites, can provoke overwhelming and protracted epidemics, with high case–fatality rates. Despite extensive efforts towards the development of an effective prophylactic vaccine, no promising vaccine is available yet for humans. Multi-epitope peptide based vaccine development is manifesting as the new era of vaccination strategies against VL. Aim of the study was the design of chimeric peptides from immunogenic L. infantum proteins for encapsulation in PLGA nanoparticles (NPs) alone or in combination with MPLA adjuvant, or in PLGA NPs surface modified with an octapeptide mimicking TNF-alpha for DCs targeting, in order to construct a peptide-based nanovaccine. The in vitro evaluation of the above nanoformulations was performed in DCs isolated from HLA-A2.1 transgenic mice. Characterization of DCs transcriptional responses to these vaccine candidates via microarrays could improve our understanding of their mechanisms of action on DCs' functional differentiation and the type of adaptive immunity subsequently induced. Overall design: For the 5 different conditions (4 stimulated and 1 unstimulated - control), 15 samples were analyzed. Experiments were conducted in biological triplicate.