Simple nanoliposomes encapsulating <em>Lycium barbarum</em> polysaccharides as adjuvants improve humoral and cellular immunity in mice

Abstract

The success of subunit vaccines has been hampered by the problems of weak or short-term immunity and the lack of availability of nontoxic, potent adjuvants. It would be desirable to develop safe and efficient adjuvants with the aim of improving the cellular immune response against the target antigen. In this study, the targeting and sustained release of simple nanoliposomes containing Lycium barbarum polysaccharides (LBP) as an efficacious immune adjuvant to improve immune responses were explored. LBP liposome (LBPL) with high entrapment efficiency (86%) were obtained using a reverse-phase evaporation method and then used to encapsulate the model antigen, ovalbumin (OVA). We demonstrated that the as-synthesized liposome loaded with OVA and LBP (LBPL-OVA) was stable for 45 days and determined the encapsulation stability of OVA at 4°C and 37°C and the release profile of OVA from LBPL-OVA was investigated in pH 7.4 and pH 5.0. Further in vivo investigation showed that the antigen-specific humoral response was correlated with antigen delivery to the draining lymph nodes. The LBPL-OVA were also associated with high levels of uptake by key dendritic cells in the draining lymph nodes and they efficiently stimulated CD4 + and CD8 + T cell proliferation in vivo, further promoting antibody production. These features together elicited a significant humoral and celluar immune response, which was superior to that produced by free antigen alone.

Antitumor activity of Lycium barbarum polysaccharides with different molecular weights: an in vitro and in vivo study

“…In fact, LBP is extracted from the edible Chinese herb, Lycium barbarum. Previous studies have shown that LBP could enhance the proliferation of splenocytes in mice [34,35], activate macrophages [36], and promote both the phenotypic and functional maturation of DC [37]. Besides, LBP also has various other biological activities, such as neuroprotective effects [38,39], radioprotective activity [40], cardioprotective activity [41], and hepatoprotective effects [42,43].…”

Chinese Herbal Medicine and Its Regulatory Effects on Tumor Related T Cells

“…In a meta-analysis of 8 trials utilizing SHEN QI FU ZHENG Injection (SFI), Xu et al (2017) found that the formula consisting of Codonopsis (dang shen) and Radix astragalus (huang qi) could improve chemotherapy outcomes, and improve immune function, upregulating CD3 + , CD4 + , CD4 + /CD8 + , and NK + cells. They also found that SFI could reduce adverse side effects such as leukocytopenia, thrombocytopenia and gastrointestinal toxicity Chen et al, Chen et al, 2017;Liu et al, 2014;Wang et al, 2017a;Ayeka et al, 2017;Zhang et al, 2018;Zhao et al, 2012;Ma et al, 2014 and Ding et al, Wu et al, 2009;Wang et al, 2018a;Hsieh et al, 2003;Gupta et al, 2004;Yadav and Lee, 2006;Yang et al, 2010;Bo et al, 2017;Willimott et al, 2007;Ma et al, 2008;Chang et al, 2011;Cai et al, (Xu et al, 2017). Though the meta-analysis pointed out the shortcomings of the included trials (the small sample size was 772, and lacked double-blind controls), it did provide encouraging results that warrant larger, better quality clinical trials.…”

“…Cao et al (1994) found that Lycium barbarum polysaccharides (LBP), one of the primary constituents of gou qi zi, significantly increased the response rate and effectiveness of NK cells in advanced stage cancer patients. More recent studies demonstrated that LBP significantly increased CD4 + and CD8 + a s c o m p a r e d w i t h t h e c o n t r o l g r o u p s t o r e d u c e immunosuppression in H22-bearing mice, and that LBP can enhance the immune system and inhibit tumor growth (Bo et al, 2017;Deng et al, 2018;Wang et al, 2018a). In addition, goji reduces inflammation via regulation of the NF-kB pathway and has been shown to inhibit the growth of colon (Mao et al, 2011), and breast cancer (Li et al, 2009), along with leukemia, liver, and gastric cancer (Cheng et al, 2014).…”

Polysaccharides from Chinese Herbal Lycium barbarum Induced Systemic and Local Immune Responses in H22 Tumor-Bearing Mice

“…Lycium barbarum polysaccharide (LBP) is isolated from the fruit of edible Chinese herbal Lycium barbarum. LBP has multiple biological activities and function, such as antitumor activity [ 1 – 3 ], immunoregulation [ 4 – 6 ], neuroprotective effect [ 7 ], and cardioprotective activity [ 8 ]. The antitumor activity of LBP had been demonstrated in the tumor-bearing mice that it could inhibit transplantable sarcoma S180 [ 2 ] and hepatoma H22 tumor growth in mice [ 1 ].…”

“…LBP-treated DC could improve Th1 and Th2 responses both in vitro and in vivo [ 21 ]. Another study led by Bo et al showed that simple nanoliposomes encapsulating Lycium barbarum polysaccharides efficiently stimulated CD4 + and CD8 + T cell proliferation in vivo [ 4 ]. Furthermore, LBP showed synergistic immunotherapeutic effects when combined with interferon- α 2b in murine rencarenal carcinoma treatment [ 22 ].…”