Prof. Rui Peng and Prof. Zhuang Liu’s research paper ‘Functionalized graphene oxide serves as anovel vaccine nano-adjuvant for robust stimulation of cellular immunity’ publishedin Nanoscale was selected as ‘2016 HotArticles in Nanoscale’.

Abstract of the paper:

Benefiting from their unique physicochemical properties, graphene derivatives have attracted great attention in biomedicine. In this study, we carefully engineered graphene oxide (GO) as a vaccine adjuvant for immunotherapy usingurease B (Ure B) as the model antigen. Ure B is a specific antigen for Helicobacter pylori, which is a class Icarcinogen for gastric cancer. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) and various types ofpolyethylenimine (PEI) were used as coating polymers. Compared withsingle-polymer modified GOs (GO–PEG and GO–PEI), certain dual-polymer modifiedGOs (GO–PEG–PEI) can act as a positive modulator to promote the maturation ofdendritic cells (DCs) and enhance their cytokine secretion through theactivation of multiple toll-like receptor (TLR) pathways while showing lowtoxicity. Moreover, this GO–PEG–PEI can serve as an antigen carrier toeffectively shuttle antigens into DCs. These two advantages enable GO–PEG–PEIto serve as a novel vaccine adjuvant. In the subsequent in vivo experiments, compared with free Ure B and clinically usedaluminum-adjuvant-based vaccine (Alum-Ure B), GO–PEG–PEI–Ure B induces strongercellular immunity via intradermaladministration, suggesting promising applications in cancer immunotherapy. Our work not only presents a novel, highly effective GO-based vaccinenano-adjuvant, but also highlights the critical roles of surface chemistry for the rational design of nano-adjuvants.

Link to the paper：http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2016/nr/c5nr09208f#!divAbstract

??Editor: Xiaoyu Jin,Email:??xyjin@suda.edu.cn