Highly tailorable gellan gum nanoparticles as a platform for the development of T cell activator systems

T cell priming has been shown to be a powerful immunotherapeutic approach for cancer treatment in terms of efficacy and relatively weak side effects. Systems that optimize the stimulation of T cells to improve therapeutic efficacy are therefore in constant demand. A way to achieve this is through artificial antigen presenting cells that are complexes between vehicles and key molecules that target relevant T cell subpopulations, eliciting antigen-specific T cell priming. In such T cell activator systems, the vehicles chosen to deliver and present the key molecules to the targeted cell populations are of extreme importance.

In this work, a new platform for the creation of T cell activator systems based on highly tailorable nanoparticles made from the natural polymer gellan gum was developed and validated. Here, it is demonstrated that the developed system presented a more sustained T cell activation over time when compared to commercial alternatives. Concurrently, the expression of higher levels of key cytotoxic pathway molecules granzyme B/perforin was induced, suggesting a greater cytotoxic potential for future application in adoptive cancer therapy.