Small Molecule Calcium Channel Activator Potentiates Adjuvant Activity

There remains an unmet need for reliable fully synthetic adjuvants that increase lasting protective immune responses from vaccines. We previously reported a high-throughput screening for small molecules that extended nuclear factor kappa-light-chain enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) activation after a Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) ligand, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), stimulation using a human myeloid reporter cell line. We identified compounds with a conserved aminothiazole scaffold including [-(4-(2,5-dimethylphenyl)thiazol-2-yl)-4-(piperidin-1-ylsulfonyl)benzamide], which increased murine antigen-specific antibody responses when used as a co-adjuvant with LPS. Here, we examined the mechanism of action in human cells. Although activated the major mitogen-activated protein kinases, it did not interact with common kinases and phosphatases and did not stimulate many of the pattern recognition receptors (PRRs). Instead, the mechanism of action was linked to intracellular Ca elevation via Ca channel(s) at the plasma membrane and nuclear translocation of the nuclear factor of activated T-cells (NFAT) as supported by RNA-seq data, analysis by reporter cells, Ca flux assays, and immunoblots. Interestingly, had minimal, if any, activity on Jurkat T cells but induced cytokine production and surface expression of costimulatory molecules on cells with antigen-presenting functions. A small series of analogs of were tested for the ability to enhance a TLR4 ligand-stimulated autologous mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR). In the MLR, , -(4-(2,5-dimethylphenyl)thiazol-2-yl)-4-((4-propylpiperidin-1-yl)sulfonyl)benzamide, was more potent than . These results indicate that a small molecule that is not a direct PRR agonist can act as a co-adjuvant to an approved adjuvant to enhance human immune responses via a complementary mechanism of action.