A Versatile and Robust Platform for the Scalable Manufacture of Biomimetic Nanovaccines

Biomimetic strategies are useful for designing potent vaccines. Decorating a nanoparticulate adjuvant with cell membrane fragments as the antigen-presenting source exemplifies, such as a promising strategy. For translation, a standardizable, consistent, and scalable approach for coating nanoadjuvant with the cell membrane is important. Here a turbulent mixing and self-assembly method called flash nanocomplexation (FNC) for producing cell membrane-coated nanovaccines in a scalable manner is demonstrated. The broad applicability of this FNC technique compared with bulk-sonication by using ten different core materials and multiple cell membrane types is shown. FNC-produced biomimetic nanoparticles have promising colloidal stability and narrow particle polydispersity, indicating an equal or more homogeneous coating compared to the bulk-sonication method. The potency of a nanovaccine comprised of B16-F10 cancer cell membrane decorating mesoporous silica nanoparticles loaded with the adjuvant CpG is then demonstrated. The FNC-fabricated nanovaccines when combined with anti-CTLA-4 show potency in lymph node targeting, DC antigen presentation, and T cell immune activation, leading to prophylactic and therapeutic efficacy in a melanoma mouse model. This study advances the design of a biomimetic nanovaccine enabled by a robust and versatile nanomanufacturing technique.

Automated summary

This study demonstrates the successful production of cell membrane-coated nanovaccines using the FNC method, which shows broad applicability with different core materials and cell membrane types. Compared to traditional sonication method, FNC-produced biomimetic nanoparticles exhibit promising colloidal stability and narrow particle distribution, enabling more homogeneous coating.