Abstracto
- Chitosan binds to negatively charged tripolyphosphate (TPP) by an electrostatic interaction driven by its positively charged amino group. This interaction allows developing stable nanoparticles suitable as a carrier and controlled release system for drugs and vaccines. We study the effect of chitosan nanoparticles (CNp) on the uptake and antigen presentation of the model protein hen-egg white lysozyme (HEL) to peritoneal macrophages isolated from mice. Results showed that after four hours of pre-incubation with a T-cell hybridoma line cocultured with murine peritoneal macrophages, only trace amounts of IL-2 were detected in treatments with HEL alone, whereas cocultures treated with HEL-CNp had already reached maximum IL-2 expression. Confocal microscopy studies showed that CNp had a higher uptake rate of the fluorescently labelled protein than the protein itself after 30 min of incubation with the peritoneal macrophages. Our results suggest that CNp system is a potential candidate for an oral vaccine delivery system.