Alpha-galactosylceramide enhances mucosal immunity to oral whole-cell cholera vaccines.

Cholera is a severe diarrheal disease caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae (V. cholerae) that results in 3-4 million cases globally with 100,000-150,000 deaths reported annually. Mostly confined to developing nations, current strategies to control the spread of cholera include the provision of safe drinking water and improved sanitation and hygiene, ideally in conjunction with oral vaccination. However, difficulties associated with the costs and logistics of these strategies have hampered their widespread implementation. Specific challenges pertaining to oral cholera vaccines (OCVs) include a lack of safe and effective adjuvants to further enhance gut immune responses, the complex and costly multicomponent vaccine manufacturing, limitations of conventional liquid formulation and the lack of an integrated delivery platform. Herein we describe the use of the orally active adjuvant α-Galactosylceramide (α-GalCer) to strongly enhance intestinal bacterium- and toxin-specific IgA responses to the OCV, Dukoral® in C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice. We further demonstrate the mucosal immunogenicity of a novel multi-antigen, single-component whole-cell killed V. cholerae strain and the enhancement of its immunogenicity by adding α-GalCer. Finally, we report that combining these components and recombinant cholera toxin B subunit in the SmPill® minisphere delivery system induced strong intestinal and systemic antigen-specific antibody responses.

An oral alpha-galactosylceramide adjuvanted Helicobacter pylori vaccine induces protective IL-1R- and IL-17R-dependent Th1 responses.

Helicobacter pylori causes chronic gastric infection that can lead to peptic ulcers and is an identified risk factor for gastric cancer development. Although much effort has been put into the development of a Helicobacter pylori vaccine over the last three decades, none has yet reached clinical application. Specific challenges pertaining to effective H. pylori vaccine development include the lack of proven vaccine-effective antigens and safe mucosal adjuvants to enhance local immune responses as well as the lack of accepted correlates of protection. Herein, we demonstrate that prophylactic intragastric immunisation with a whole-cell killed H. pylori antigen administered together with the non-toxic oral adjuvant α-galactosylceramide (α-GalCer) induced effective immune protection against H. pylori infection in mice, which was of similar magnitude as when using the "gold standard" cholera toxin as adjuvant. We further describe that this α-GalCer-adjuvanted vaccine formulation elicited strong intestinal and systemic Th1 responses as well as significant antigen-specific mucosal and systemic antibody responses. Finally, we report that the protective intestinal Th1 responses induced by α-GalCer are dependent on CD1d, IL-1R as well as IL-17R signalling. In summary, our results show that α-GalCer is a promising adjuvant for inclusion in an oral vaccine against H. pylori infection.

Bioadhesive film for dermal and transdermal drug delivery.

This paper describes an innovative transdermal drug delivery system, a monolaminated bioadhesive film in which the usual constituents of transdermal patches (backing, drug and adhesive) have been condensed in one single layer, denominated Patch-non-Patch. The main characteristics of the film is that it is not self-adhesive in the dry state but becomes adhesive only when applied on wet skin. This characteristic is due to the presence of a small amount of adhesive, unable to make the system self-adhesive, but capable of restoring the adhesiveness in contact with a small amount of water. From the results obtained to date, it appears that the technology Patch-non-Patch has the potentiality to be successfully applied to the pharmaceutical and cosmetic market. On the skin the film is flexible, invisible and adapts to all skin irregularities. The system has been shown to be highly efficient, releasing a high percentage of the active included in most cases. Additionally, the inclusion of other excipients can modulate drug delivery, thus improving the versatility of the product. Finally, the second generation Patch-non-Patch, made occlusive on the skin surface, can further broaden the potential application.

Thermostability of the coating, antigen and immunostimulator in an adjuvanted oral capsule vaccine formulation.

Oral vaccines present an attractive alternative to injectable vaccines for enteric diseases due to ease of delivery and the induction of intestinal immunity at the site of infection. However, susceptibility to gastrointestinal proteolysis, limited transepithelial uptake and a lack of clinically acceptable adjuvants present significant challenges. A further challenge to mass vaccination in developing countries is the very expensive requirement to maintain the cold chain. We recently described the effectiveness of a Single Multiple Pill® (SmPill®) adjuvanted capsule approach to enhance the effectiveness of a candidate enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) oral vaccine. Here it was demonstrated that this delivery system maintains the antigenicity of ETEC colonisation factor antigen I (CFA/I) and the immunostimulatory activity of the orally active α-Galactosylceramide (α-GalCer) adjuvant after storage of SmPill® minispheres under room temperature and extreme storage conditions for several months. In addition, the internal structure of the cores of SmPill® minispheres and antigen release features at intestinal pH were found to be preserved under all these conditions. However, changes in the surface morphology of SmPill® minispheres leading to the antigen release at gastric pH were observed after a few weeks of storage under extreme conditions. Those modifications were prevented by the introduction of an Opadry® White film coating layer between the core of SmPill® minispheres and the enteric coating. Under these conditions, protection against antigen release at gastric pH was maintained even under high temperature and humidity conditions. These results support the potential of the SmPill® minisphere approach to maintain the stability of an adjuvanted whole cell killed oral vaccine formulation.

Coated minispheres of salmon calcitonin target rat intestinal regions to achieve systemic bioavailability: Comparison between intestinal instillation and oral gavage.

Achieving oral peptide delivery is an elusive challenge. Emulsion-based minispheres of salmon calcitonin (sCT) were synthesized using single multiple pill (SmPill®) technology incorporating the permeation enhancers (PEs): sodium taurodeoxycholate (NaTDC), sodium caprate (C10), or coco-glucoside (CG), or the pH acidifier, citric acid (CA). Minispheres were coated with an outer layer of Eudragit® L30 D-55 (designed for jejunal release) or Surelease®/Pectin (designed for colonic release). The process was mild and in vitro biological activity of sCT was retained upon release from minispheres stored up to 4months. In vitro release profiles suggested that sCT was released from minispheres by diffusion through coatings due to swelling of gelatin and the polymeric matrix upon contact with PBS at pH6.8. X-ray analysis confirmed that coated minispheres dissolved at the intended intestinal region of rats following oral gavage. Uncoated minispheres at a dose of ~2000I.U.sCT/kg were administered to rats by intra-jejunal (i.j.) or intra-colonic (i.c.) instillation and caused hypocalcaemia. Notable sCT absolute bioavailability (F) values were: 5.5% from minispheres containing NaTDC (i.j), 17.3% with CG (i.c.) and 18.2% with C10 (i.c.). Coated minispheres administered by oral gavage at threefold higher doses also induced hypocalcaemia. A highly competitive F value of 2.7% was obtained for orally-administered sCT-minispheres containing CG (45µmol/kg) and coated with Eudragit®. In conclusion, the SmPill® technology is a potential dosage form for several peptides when formulated with PEs and coated for regional delivery. PK data from instillations over-estimates oral bioavailability and poorly predicts rank ordering of formulations.

A novel adjuvanted capsule based strategy for oral vaccination against infectious diarrhoeal pathogens.

Diarrhoeal infections are a major cause of morbidity and mortality with enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) and cholera imposing a significant global burden. There is currently no licensed vaccine for ETEC. Development of new nonliving oral vaccines has proven difficult due to the physicochemical and immunological challenges associated with the oral route. This demands innovative delivery solutions to protect antigens, control their release and build in immune-stimulatory activity. We describe the Single Multiple Pill® (SmPill®) vaccine formulation which combines the benefits of enteric polymer coating to protect against low gastric pH, a dispersed phase to control release and aid the solubility of non-polar components and an optimized combination of adjuvant and antigen to promote mucosal immunity. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this system with whole cell killed E. coli overexpressing colonization factor antigen I (CFA/I), JT-49. Alpha-galactosylceramide was identified as a potent adjuvant within SmPill® that enhanced the immunogenicity of JT-49. The bacteria associated with the dispersed phase were retained within the capsules at gastric pH but released at intestinal pH. Vaccination with an optimized SmPill® formulation promoted CFA/I-specific immunoglobulin A (IgA) responses in the intestinal mucosa in addition to serum IgG and a solubilized adjuvant was indispensable for efficacy.

Targeted delivery of the hydroxylase inhibitor DMOG provides enhanced efficacy with reduced systemic exposure in a murine model of colitis.

Targeting hypoxia-sensitive pathways has recently been proposed as a new therapeutic approach to the treatment of intestinal inflammation. HIF-hydroxylases are enzymes which confer hypoxic-sensitivity upon the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF), a major regulator of the adaptive response to hypoxia. Previous studies have shown that systemic (intraperitoneal) administration of hydroxylase inhibitors such as dimethyloxalylglycine (DMOG) is profoundly protective in multiple models of colitis, however the therapeutic potential of this approach is limited due to potential side-effects associated with systemic drug exposure and the fact that orally delivered DMOG is ineffective (likely due to drug inactivation by gastric acid). In order to overcome these issues, we formulated DMOG in a liquid emulsion drug delivery system which, when coated with specific polymer coatings, permits oral delivery of a reduced dose which is released locally throughout the colon. This colon-targeted DMOG formulation demonstrated increased relative colonic bioactivity with reduced systemic exposure and provided a similar degree of protection to systemic (intraperitoneal) administration at a 40-fold lower dose in DSS-induced colitis. In summary, targeted delivery of DMOG to the colon provides local protection resulting in enhanced efficacy with reduced systemic exposure in the treatment of colitis. This novel approach to targeting hydroxylase inhibitors to specific diseased regions of the GI tract may improve it's potential as a new therapeutic in inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis.