Sessevmez, MelikeSinani, GenadaOkyar, AlperAlpar, Hazire OyaCevher, Erdal2023-07-212023-07-212023Sessevmez, M., Sinani, G., Okyar, A., Alpar, H. O., & Cevher, E. (2023). Induction of humoral and cell-mediated immunity in mice by chitosan-curdlan composite nanoparticles administered intranasally and subcutaneously. Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology, 86, 104704.1773-2247https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12939/3571Infectious diseases seriously threaten human life. The need for novel delivery systems and adjuvants suitable to be used in clinic for antigens remains a challenge. Among various attempts that have been made to provide optimum immune responses for protein antigens with poor immunogenicity, polymeric nanoparticles offer great opportunities. In this study, carboxymethyl curdlan (CMC) as a polyanionic polymer and chitosan chloride (CC) and N-trimethyl chitosan (TMC) as polycationic polymers were synthesised in-house and composite nanoparticles (CC-CMC-BSA and TMC-CMC-BSA) loaded with bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a model antigen were prepared via polyelectrolyte complexation and reported here for the first time. Nanoparticles with an average size ranging from 153 nm to 615 nm, positive surface charge (from +24 mV to +55 mV) and encapsulation efficiency as high as 90% were obtained depending on the concentration of polymers in the formulation. The nanoparticles showed good physical stability for three months and low toxicity in Calu-3 and A549 cells. Furthermore, SDS integrity of antigen was maintained. In vivo studies in mice indicated that nasal and subcutaneous administration of composite nanoparticles could provide long-term humoral and cellular immunity as determined by serum antibody titres (IgG, IgG1, IgG2a) and cytokine (IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10 and IFN-γ) levels. Elevated sIgA levels after nasal administration of the nanoparticles showed that mucosal immunity was successfully stimulated. These findings suggest that chitosan-curdlan composite nanoparticles show optimum properties to be used as nanovaccine for nasal immunisation of protein antigens.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccessChitosanCurdlanImmune responseNanoparticleNasalVaccineArticle862-s2.0-85163847224Q1WOS:001053998300001Q1