Lin, Adam YuhLunsford, JessicaBear, Adham SeanYoung, Joseph KeithEckels, PhillipLuo, LaureenFoster, Aaron EdwardDrezek, Rebekah Anna2013-04-292013-04-292013Lin, Adam Yuh, Lunsford, Jessica, Bear, Adham Sean, et al.. "High-density sub-100-nm peptide-gold nanoparticle complexes improve vaccine presentation by dendritic cells in vitro." <i>Nanoscale Research Letters,</i> 8, no. 72 (2013) Springer: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1556-276X-8-72.https://hdl.handle.net/1911/71014Nanocarriers have been explored to improve the delivery of tumor antigens to dendritic cells (DCs). Gold nanoparticles are attractive nanocarriers because they are inert, non-toxic, and can be readily endocytosed by DCs. Here, we designed novel gold-based nanovaccines (AuNVs) using a simple self-assembling bottom-up conjugation method to generate high-peptide density delivery and effective immune responses with limited toxicity. AuNVs were synthesized using a self-assembling conjugation method and optimized using DC-to-splenocyte interferon-γ enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot assays. The AuNV design has shown successful peptide conjugation with approximately 90% yield while remaining smaller than 80 nm in diameter. DCs uptake AuNVs with minimal toxicity and are able to process the vaccine peptides on the particles to stimulate cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs). These high-peptide density AuNVs can stimulate CTLs better than free peptides and have great potential as carriers for various vaccine types.engThis article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Journal articlevaccinesgold nanoparticlesELISPOTsimmunotherapydendritic cellsself-assembled monolayerhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1556-276X-8-72