This technology is the first to show that subcutaneous administrations of chitosan and an appropriate antigen, with no other component, can be used for enhancing immune responses.

This technology describes the use of chitosan depots with appropriate antigens and/or cytokines for generating an immune response in a subject.  Such depots are made by mixing one or more antigens and/or cytokines with chitosan or a chitosan derivative.  Similar compositions are described wherein chitosan or a derivative forms a micro- or nanoparticle, which have resulted in a more immunogenic presentation of antigen compared to antigen in solution.  Using a representative antigen, the inventors showed that mice vaccinated with the subject depots had increased humoral and cellular immune responses compared to mice vaccinated with antigen alone¹.  Furthermore, comparative mouse studies showed the antigen-specific immune response generated with chitosan depots of this invention to be equipotent to incomplete Freund’s adjuvant (IFA) and superior to aluminum hydroxide, a widely used adjuvant for licensed and routinely administered vaccines¹.  Thus, this technology improves upon commonly used adjuvant technology and is widely applicable. This technology is the first to show that subcutaneous administrations of chitosan and an appropriate antigen, with no other component, can be used for enhancing immune responses.  In additional studies, the inventors showed that chitosan is able to maintain a depot of recombinant cytokine. A single subcutaneous injection of chitosan-cytokine outperforms daily injections of recombinant cytokine in both the expansion of draining lymph nodes and in the antigen presenting ability of lymph node cells.  This technology is the first to show that chitosan can maintain a depot of cytokine which results in a significant enhancement of the functional effects of a cytokine.  This technology can be used for vaccines and immunotherapies against various infectious agents and cancer.

 

Applications:

·   Vaccine adjuvant

·   Immunogenic depots, including vaccine and cytokine

 

Development Status: 

Animal (mouse) data available

 

Reference:

¹DA Zaharoff, CJ Rogers, KW Hance, J Schlom, JW Greiner. Chitosan solution enhances both humoral and cell-mediated immune responses to subcutaneous vaccination. Vaccine (accepted November 2006).

U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/846,481 filed 22 Sep 2006 (HHS Reference No. E-311-2006/0-US-01)

 

Inventor: 

Jeffrey Schlom et al. (NCI)

Licensees Sought:

Available for non-exclusive or exclusive licensing.

Collaborative Research Opportunity: 

The NCI Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology is seeking statements of capability or interest from parties interested in collaborative research to further develop, evaluate, or commercialize chitosan-mediated immunopotentiation of vaccines and immunotherapies.  Please contact John Hewes, Ph.D. at 301-496-0477 or hewesj@mail.nih.gov for more information.