Nanostructured Lipid Carriers to Deliver HIV p 24 Antigen and CpG Immunostimulant in immunogenicity studies

HIV caused 35 million deaths around the world. Despite the huge efforts spent in R&D in the last decades to develop new therapeutics and vaccines, the virus spread remains uncontrolled. With the last clinical trials evidencing the challenges to develop an effective prophylactic HIV vaccine, smart and innovative solutions to design vaccine formulations which overcome these immunological obstacles are still highly anticipated. In this context, we used nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) for the delivery of p24 antigen as an HIV model antigen. We have designed tuned formulations comprising NLC grafted with p24, together with cationic NLC optimized for the delivery of CpG immunostimulant. This tailored system strongly promoted specific immune responses in mice. More importantly, the potency of NLC for the induction of specific immune responses was further supported by a study on non-human primates (NHP). This work paves the way towards the development of future HIV vaccines.