This hydrogel vaccine implants in patients and can carry molecules that train immune cells to treat specific human diseases, such as cancer and infectious diseases. The vaccine is a type of immunotherapy, treatments focused on activating the immune system against cancer and other diseases. Researchers at the University of Florida have created a biocompatible hydrogel vaccine for immunotherapy that results in robust recruitment of different immune cell subsets and serves as a scaffold for interactions of these cells with an antigen loaded in the vaccine. The immune cells recruited within the hydrogel result in a large immune response against the target antigen. The response occurs throughout the body, including sites such as the brain, traditionally considered immune-privileged sites. This eliminates the cost and difficulty of training immune cells ex vivo associated with other immunotherapy modalities, while promoting immune cell viability, antigen uptake, and migration to provide a more efficient immune vaccine.
Immunotherapy vaccine for various cancers and illnesses that efficiently trains the immune system in vivo
The biocompatible nanocomposite hydrogel allows free passage of immune cells in and out of the gel in-situ. The hydrogel vaccine slowly releases a signaling ligand to recruit dendritic cells, NK cells and T cells into the hydrogel. The hydrogel effectively and non-aggressively introduces the antigen nanoparticle mRNA to the dendritic cells. The dendritic cells then present the antigen to the T cells to stimulate them against the antigen, allowing them to attack and kill the target cells within the body, such as tumor cells.