Fig. 2: SIMPL Tablets containing Q11-PEG assemblies raise antibody responses in an adjuvant dose-dependent manner.

(A) Fluorescently labelled TAMRA-pOVA peptide or SIMPL tablets prepared with TAMRA-OVAQ11 nanofibers were incubated with DC2.4 mouse dendritic cells, and uptake was measured by flow cytometry. ***p < 0.001 by 2-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test, n=3/group. (B) C57BL/6 mice were immunized sublingually with tablets containing 20 nmol of pOVA or OVAQ11 and 7 μg cholera toxin B adjuvant (CTB) and boosted at weeks 2, 5, and 8. *** p < 0.001 by 2-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test, n=5/group. (C) Mice from (B) were boosted at week 15 and sacrificed 7 days later. Spleens were harvested and T-cell responses were measured by ELISPOT. SFC: spot-forming cells. n.s. (not significant) by multiple 1-way ANOVAs, n=5/group. Full ELISPOT results are in Fig. S4. (D) Mice were immunized sublingually with tablets containing 20 nmol OVAQ11-PEG and 14 ug CTB and boosted at weeks 1, 5, and 17. n=5/group. (E) Mice from OVAQ11 + CTB tablet groups in (B) and (D) were compared to show effect of adjuvant dose on titer. Color-coded arrows indicate boosting (black arrows indicate both groups were boosted). * p < 0.05 by 2-way ANOVA. (F) Mice from (D) were sacrificed at week 18, spleens and draining lymph nodes (submandibular and cervical) were harvested, and T-cell responses were measured by ELISPOT. Full ELISPOT results are in Fig. S5. * p < 0.05 by multiple t-tests with Holm-Šidák correction.