Zwitterionic Surfactant as a Promising Non-Cytotoxic Carrier for Nanoemulsion-Based Vaccine Development

Abstract

Motivated by the lack of noncytotoxic carriers in the current vaccine, we pursued the possibility of using a zwitterionic surfactant as a carrier to improve their delivery efficiency with antigen for a nanoemulsion-based vaccine. We identified that a nanoemulsion formulation that consists of a specific zwitterionic surfactant can effectively mediate cellular uptake of antigen despite not having cytotoxicity as compared to a nanoemulsion that consists of a cationic surfactant. We report here the first study of a zwitterionic surfactant that consists of a positive charge in the outer layer of the polar head group and a hydrophobic tail is a promising approach for enhancing the carrier's efficacy with no noticeable toxicity under experimental condition. However, zwitterionic surfactant that has positive charge in the outer layer with additional hydrophobicity due to the presence of aromatic ring had minimal cellular uptake and transfection efficacy.