Mf. Delguercio et al., POTENT IMMUNOGENIC SHORT LINEAR PEPTIDE CONSTRUCTS COMPOSED OF B-CELLEPITOPES AND PAN DR T-HELPER EPITOPES (PADRE) FOR ANTIBODY-RESPONSES IN-VIVO, Vaccine, 15(4), 1997, pp. 441-448
Induction of humoral immune responses against protein antigen requires
that two independent signals be delivered to B cells. It is currently
assumed that simple monovalent synthetic peptides would not be effect
ive immunogens for antibody responses because they would not be antici
pated to effectively generate the necessary signals unless conjugated
to a complex carrier system. In this study, the immunogenicity;of shor
t linear peptide constructs comprising Plasmodium vivax B cell epitope
s (PVB) and non-natural Pan-DR T helper cell epitopes (PADRE) was asse
ssed in mice and compared to other types of antigen constructs. The 33
-residue PADRE-PVB linear constructs were highly immunogenic and induc
ed responses comparable to those obtained with the multiple antigen pe
ptides (MAP) constructs, both in terms of absolute titers and quality
of antibody responses. The anti-PVB antibody responses were of long du
ration, composed mostly of IgG and reactive with intact sporozoites. T
he PADRE-PVB constructs were immunogenic when formulated in adjuvants
such as Alum and Montanide ISA 51 underlining the relevance of these f
indings for vaccine development. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.