Phosphatidylserine-mediated oral tolerance

•Phosphatidylserine (PS) converts an immunogen to a tolerogen.•Nanoparticle delivery system containing PS promotes intestinal preferential uptake and can engage gut-associated immune system for oral tolerance induction.•Harnessing the tolerogenic function of PS, an effective oral immunotherapy was developed to prevent/reduce immune responses against therapeutic proteins, autoantigens, and allergens. Phosphatidylserine (PS) is an anionic phospholipid exposed on the surface of apoptotic cells. The exposure of PS typically recruits and signals phagocytes to engulf and silently clear these dying cells to maintain tolerance via immunological ignorance. However, recent and emerging evidence has demonstrated that PS converts an “immunogen” into a “tolerogen”, and PS exposure on the surface of cells or vesicles actively promotes a tolerogenic environment. This tolerogenic property depends on the biophysical characteristics of PS-containing vesicles, including PS density on the particle surface to effectively engage tolerogenic receptors, such as TIM-4, which is exclusively expressed on the surface of antigen-presenting cells. We harnessed the cellular and molecular mechanistic insight of PS-mediated immune regulation to design an effective oral tolerance approach. This immunotherapy has been shown to prevent/reduce immune response against life-saving protein-based therapies, food allergens, autoantigens, and the antigenic viral capsid peptide commonly used in gene therapy, suggesting a broad spectrum of potential clinical applications. Given the good safety profile of PS together with the ease of administration, oral tolerance achieved with PS-based nanoparticles has a very promising therapeutic impact.