Nanoparticles target distinct dendritic cell populations according to their size

The efficiency of a vaccine largely depends on the appropriate targeting of the innate immune system, mainly through prolonged delivery of antigens and immunomodulatory substances to professional antigen-presenting cells in the lymphoid environment. Particulate antigens, such as virus-like particles (VLP) induce potent immune responses. However, little is known about the relative importance of direct drainage of free antigen to lymph nodes (LN) versus cellular transport and the impact of particle size on the process. Here, we show that nanoparticles traffic to the draining LN in a size-dependent manner. Whereas large particles (500-2000 nm) were mostly associated with dendritic cells (DC) from the injection…