Delivery systems based on ferritin and chitosan containing DNA vaccine: Transfection capacity evaluation studies

• Grant number: 23/02132-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): June 01, 2023
• Effective date (End): November 30, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Pharmacy - Pharmaceutical Technology
• Principal Investigator: Fabiana Testa Moura de Carvalho Vicentini
• Grantee: Amanda Marante Gimenez
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas de Ribeirão Preto (FCFRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Recently, cancer vaccines stand out as a promising strategy capable of inducing a specific and lasting immune response against antigens expressed in tumors,usually aproteins overexpressed and related in tumor progression and metastasis. DNA vaccines become advantageous once they are plasmids designed to deliver genes that encode these antigens, inducing and increasing the adaptive immune response against tumor cells. These vaccines, then, promote fewer side effects and less damage to healthy tissues, promote a systemic immune response capable to limit metastases, and also induce an immunological memory (Lopes, Vandermeulen, Préat, 2019). It should also be noted that the application of DNA vaccines for the melanoma treatment is a promising strategy, as it is one of the few types of antigen-specific cancer that is susceptible to this type of therapy (Rezaei et al., 2021).This project is part of the PhD project entitled: "Development and evaluation of delivery systems based on ferritin and chitosan for the delivery of genetic vaccine" under the responsibility of the student Natália Floriano Paiva. Considering the importance of the cell uptake process for the effectiveness of DNA vaccines, the evaluation of the developed systems behavior in the cell transfection process and consequent formation of the protein of interest in HEK cells, the main objective of the present project, becomes a crucial step for understanding and selecting the best formulations to be used in the future immunogenicity studies.