Nanoparticle formulation and evaluation of novel synthetic immune stimulating agents

多年来，在农场动物中使用抗生素一直是一种常见的做法，以防止它们感染并使它们快速生长。然而，人类出现抗生素耐药性的危险与在农场动物中不加控制地使用抗生素有关，因此，世界上大多数发达国家和发展中国家已采取必要措施。增强农场动物的免疫系统以预防感染是防止或限制抗生素使用的另一种方法。阿尔伯塔化学研究（ARCI）目前正在开发新的免疫刺激剂，将它们用作兽医疫苗，以提高它们的先天免疫力。ARCI已经为各种免疫受体合成了几种配体，如Toll样受体、核苷酸寡聚结构域（NOD）样受体，并正在寻找将它们配制成可生物降解的纳米颗粒，以便有效地递送给动物。目前的研究计划是将ARCI产品配制成PLGA纳米颗粒，并利用申请人建立的体外细胞培养研究来研究其免疫刺激效果。拟议的研究将为ARCI提供强大的知识产权，并有助于与申请人建立长期合作关系。该项目的成果最终将为加拿大的经济和社会利益作出贡献。

The use of antibiotics in the farm animals has been a common practice to prevent them from infections as well as to increase the their growth quickly for many years. However, the danger of emergence of antibiotic resistance in humans has been linked to the uncontrolled use of antibiotics in farm animals and hence necessary measures have been implemented in most developed and developing countries around the world. Boosting the immune system of farm animals to prevent infection is an alternate approach to prevent or limit the use of antibiotics. Alberta Research Chemicals (ARCI) is currently developing novel immunestimulating agents to use them as veterinary vaccines in general to improve their innate immunity. ARCI has synthesized several ligands for various immune receptors such as Toll like receptors, Nucleotide Oligomerization Domain (NOD) like receptors and looking for formulating them into biodegradable nanoparticles for their effective delivery to animals. The current research proposal is to formulate ARCI products into PLGA nanoparticles and study their immune stimulation efficacy using the applicants established in vitro cell culture studies. The proposed research will provide a strong intellectual property to ARCI and help establishing a long term collaboration with the applicant. The outcome of this project would eventually contribute to economic and social benefit to Canada.