Spatiotemporal Dynamic Immunomodulation by Infection-Mimicking Gels Enhances Broad and Durable Protective Immunity Against Heterologous Viruses.

ABSTRACT: Despite their safety and widespread use, conventional protein antigen-based subunit vaccines face significant challenges such as low immunogenicity, insufficient long-term immunity, poor CD8⁺ T-cell activation, and poor adaptation to viral variants. To address these issues, an infection-mimicking gel (IM-Gel) is developed that is designed to emulate the spatiotemporal dynamics of immune stimulation in acute viral infections through in situ supramolecular self-assembly of nanoparticulate-TLR7/8a (NP-TLR7/8a) and an antigen with tannic acid (TA). Through collagen-binding properties of TA, the IM-Gel enables sustained delivery and enhanced retention of NP-TLR7/8a and protein antigen in the lymph node subcapsular sinus of mice for over 7 days, prolonging the exposure of vaccine comp

SUBMITTER: Jin SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11884557 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature