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Recombinant spider silk functionalized with a CD40 agonist shows improved capability to activate human B cells in vitro - A novel module for cancer immunotherapy
KTH, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health (CBH), Protein Science, Protein Technology.
KTH, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health (CBH), Protein Science, Protein Technology.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7153-8527
KTH, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health (CBH), Protein Science, Protein Engineering.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-4483-7801
KTH, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health (CBH), Protein Science, Protein Technology.
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2025 (English)In: International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, ISSN 0141-8130, E-ISSN 1879-0003, Vol. 327, article id 147503Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This paper presents the generation and evaluation of a novel potential drug delivery platform for biologics, based on recombinant spider silk. Targeting CD40 for activation of antigen presenting cells, in order to overcome tumor induced T cell tolerance, have shown promising results in cell and animal models. However, further trials have gained limited results due to severe side reactions. To overcome this, we have investigated a strategy for a localized CD40 activation. A CD40 agonist based on a single chain variable fragment (scFv<inf>CD40</inf>) was enzymatically coupled to silk structures, that were then used to stimulate cells in vitro. A reporter cell line responsive to CD40 agonists was used to evaluate the bioactivity of the developed scFv<inf>CD40</inf>-silk, and to optimize the method. Once the bioactivity was confirmed, human primary B cells derived from healthy donors were stimulated with the scFv<inf>CD40</inf>-silk construct. The resulting B cell response was characterized both by upregulated surface expression of the activation marker CD86 (3 fold), suggesting an improved antigen-presenting capacity, and by B cell proliferation (4 fold) generating an expanded B cell population. The detected upregulation of the costimulatory molecule CD86 on the B cells implies a potential of the functionalized silk to steer the tumor-specific T cell response from tolerance to immune activation, including the onset of appropriate effector functions. Finally, we investigated the usability of the novel silk format microspheres for CD40-mediated cell activation in vitro. Here, we were able to demonstrate that scFv<inf>CD40</inf>-coupled silk microspheres gave a pronounced activation of the CD40-expressing reporter cell line, supporting the suitability of silk microspheres for the delivery of biologics with immune modulatory purposes.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier BV , 2025. Vol. 327, article id 147503
Keywords [en]
Biologics, CD40 targeting, immune cell modulation, antigen presenting cell, Receptor clustering, Recombinant spider silk protein, single chain variable fragments
National Category
Immunology in the Medical Area Medical Biotechnology (Focus on Cell Biology, (incl. Stem Cell Biology), Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Biochemistry or Biopharmacy)
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-370080DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2025.147503ISI: 001568435000003PubMedID: 40921361Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105015093185OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-370080DiVA, id: diva2:1999684
Note

QC 20250922

Available from: 2025-09-22 Created: 2025-09-22 Last updated: 2025-09-22Bibliographically approved

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Widhe, MonaJansson, RonniePires, Rodrigo SanchesHedhammar, My

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Keller, GunnarWidhe, MonaJansson, RonnieVaisbourd, ElizabethPires, Rodrigo SanchesHedhammar, My
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Protein TechnologyProtein EngineeringApplied Physical Chemistry
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International Journal of Biological Macromolecules
Immunology in the Medical AreaMedical Biotechnology (Focus on Cell Biology, (incl. Stem Cell Biology), Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Biochemistry or Biopharmacy)

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