Caries vaccines have been identified as a good strategy for the prevention of caries through the mechanism of inoculation against Streptococcus mutans, which is the main etiological bacterium causing caries. Protein antigen c (PAc) of S. mutans has been administered as an anticaries vaccine but shows relatively weak immunogenicity to elicit a low-level immune response. Here, we report a zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 nanoparticle (ZIF-8 NP)-based adjuvant with good biocompatibility, pH responsiveness, and high loading performance for PAc that was used as an anticaries vaccine. In this study, we prepared a ZIF-8@PAc anticaries vaccine and investigated the immune responses and anticaries efficacy induced by this vaccine in vitro and in vivo. ZIF-8 NPs substantially improved the internalization of PAc in lysosomes for further processing and presentation to T lymphocytes. In addition, significantly higher IgG antibody titers, cytokine levels, splenocyte proliferation indices, and percentages of mature dendritic cells (DCs) and central memory T cells were detected in mice subcutaneously immunized with ZIF-8@PAc than in mice subcutaneously immunized with PAc alone. Finally, rats were immunized with ZIF-8@PAc, and ZIF-8@PAc elicited a strong immune response to inhibit colonization by S. mutans and improve prophylactic efficacy against caries. Based on the results, ZIF-8 NPs are promising as an adjuvant for anticaries vaccine development. IMPORTANCE Streptococcus mutans is the main etiologic bacterium of dental caries, whose protein antigen c (PAc) has been administered as an anticaries vaccine. However, the immunogenicity of PAc is relatively weak. To improve the immunogenicity of PAc, ZIF-8 NP was used as an adjuvant, and the immune responses and protective effect elicited by ZIF-8@PAc anticaries vaccine were evaluated in vitro and in vivo. The findings will help in prevention of dental caries and provide new insight for the development of anticaries vaccine in the future.
Keywords: PAc; caries; immune response; vaccine adjuvant; zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 nanoparticles.