Antigen-Adjuvant Interactions in Vaccines by Taylor Dispersion Analysis: Size Characterization and Binding Parameters

Vaccine adjuvants are immunostimulatory substances used to improve and modulate the immune response induced by antigens. A better understanding of the antigen-adjuvant interactions is necessary to develop future effective vaccine. In this study, Taylor dispersion analysis (TDA) was successfully implemented to characterize the interactions between a polymeric adjuvant (poly(acrylic acid), SPA09) and a vaccine antigen in development for the treatment of Staphylococcus aureus. TDA allowed one to rapidly determine both (i) the size of the antigen-adjuvant complexes under physiological conditions and (ii) the percentage of free antigen in the adjuvant/antigen mixture at equilibrium and finally get the interaction parameters (stoichiometry and binding constant). The complex sizes obtained by TDA were compared to the results obtained by transmission electron microscopy, and the binding parameters were compared to results previously obtained by frontal analysis continuous capillary electrophoresis.