MPI Research is accredited by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory find more Animal Care International (AAALAC International), and was under guidance of IACUC. Vaccinations with the nanoparticle vaccine and saline control were administered by injection between the skin and underlying layers of tissue in the thigh region of each animal. The same injection site on each animal was used for each administration unless a reaction at the injection site indicated that another site must be used. All injection sites were marked and identified throughout the course of

the study. The dose was administered by bolus injection. Monkeys were immunized (N = 10 per group) on days −78 and −48 with a combined pediatric diphtheria/tetanus

toxoid vaccine, and then immunized on days 1, 29, and 57 with saline, or escalating doses of 1 mL of nanoparticle vaccine at 0.5, 2.0, 8.0 and 16.0 mg/mL. Blood was collected on days shown, prior to immunization (day 1) and then on days 29, 57, 85, 113, and 141 to test for anti-nicotine antibodies. Peripheral blood was collected on day 85 for T cell recall analysis (3 mL) and PBMC isolated by percoll centrifugation. Briefly, human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated from normal human donors (Research Blood Components, Cambridge, MA). Blood was BMS-907351 supplier diluted 1:1 in phosphate buffered saline and then 35 mL overlaid on top of 12 mLs Ficoll-Paque premium

(GE Healthcare, Pittsburgh, PA) in a 50 mL centrifuge tube. Tubes were spun at 1400 RPM for 30 min, and the transition phase PBMCs collected, diluted in PBS with 2% fetal calf serum and spun at 1200 rpm for 10 min. Cells were re-suspended in cell freezing media (Sigma–Aldrich, St. Louis, MO) and immediately frozen at −80 °C. For long term storage, cells were transferred to liquid nitrogen. For rhesus monkey PBMC isolation the protocol was the same except 5 mL of blood was collected and processed. why For cynomolgus monkey PBMC, 3 mL of blood was processed, buffy coat was collected and overlaid on 60% Percoll (GE Healthcare), centrifuged 30 min at 1755 rpm, washed and frozen as described above. Frozen PBMC were thawed (37 °C water bath), re-suspended in PBS 10% FCS, spun down and re-suspended to 5 × 106 cells/mL in tissue culture media (RPMI), supplemented with 5% heat inactivated human serum (Sigma–Aldrich), l-glutamine, penicillin and streptomycin, (Gibco, Grand Island, NY). For memory T cell recall response assays, cells (0.6–1.0 mL) were cultured in 24-well plates with 4 μM peptide (GenScript) at 37 °C 5% CO2 for 2 h. One μL of 1000× Brefeldin A (BD, San Jose, CA) per mL of culture media was then added and cells returned to a 37 °C incubator for 4–6 h. Cells were then incubated at 27 °C, 5% CO2 for 16 h.