(A) The DC-to-OT-I splenocyte IFN-γ ELISPOT data comparing the efficacies of the OVA AuNVs and the free peptides. The AuNVs (max dose 10 μg/ml) were able to induce a significantly stronger SAR302503 research buy response than the free peptides (10 μg/ml) (double asterisk denotes p < 0.01). (B) The DC-to-OT-I and pmel-1 splenocyte Natural Product Library clinical trial IFN-γ ELISPOT data comparing the PEG linker AuNVs and the DNA spacer AuNVs for OVA and gp100 (double asterisk

denotes p < 0.01; n.s, not significant). (C) The DC-to-OT-I and pmel-1 splenocyte IFN-γ ELISPOT with the OVA and gp100 AuNVs. Each particle responded to its corresponding splenocyte significantly more than the unmatched AuNV (double asterisk denotes p < 0.01). To visualize the effects of AuNVs, we standardized the ELISPOT spot count with the amount of peptide used. The ELISPOT results in Figure  6B show that the DNA spacers (8 SFC/μg) do not work as well as the PEG linker (14 SFC/μg) for OVA on the AuNVs because

their effects were similar to those of free peptides (10 SFC/μg). However, the DNA spacer (17 SFC/μg) and PEG linker AuNVs (19 SFC/μg) for gp100 showed significant improvement in CTL stimulation. To verify that the splenocyte IFN-γ induction is specific to the correct peptides, we exposed the OVA and gp100 AuNVs to BMDCs and then exposed them to OT-I splenocytes and pmel-1 splenocytes (Figure  6C). From the ELISPOT results, the OT-I splenocytes responded significantly Veliparib chemical structure more to the OVA AuNVs (135 SFC) than

the gp100 AuNVs (96 SFC) and vice versa for pmel-1 (OVA, 36 SFC; gp100, 289 SFC). Therefore, in addition to being simple, versatile, and cost-effective, our AuNV design is highly specific and non-toxic. AuNV evaluation with various particle core sizes As noted above, the hydrodynamic particle size of the AuNV can be important for particle migration to lymph nodes. The AuNV size can be controlled by the Clomifene size of the core AuNP. We used DC-to-OT-I splenocyte ELISPOTs to measure the size effects from 15-, 30-, and 80-nm OVA AuNVs. This assay cannot test the subcutaneous draining abilities of the AuNV particles and would require an in vivo study to select the best core size. However, the results suggest that particle size does not significantly alter the IFN-γ efficacy using in vitro assays (Additional file 1: Figure S6). All three particle size conditions had a maximum peptide dose of 10 μg/ml, which correlates to 7 × 1011 particles/ml for 15-nm cores, 1011 particles/ml for 30-nm cores, and 5.5 × 109 for 80-nm cores. Peptide-pool AuNVs To this point, the AuNV designs have been focused on using MHC class I peptides. Although most vaccine work has been focused on specific CD8+ T cells epitopes, individual epitopes for all HLA types for MHC I and II have not been identified. However, peptide pools are segments with overlapping amino acid (aa) sequences that incorporate an entire antigen sequence.