Preparation and properties of totally synthetic immunogens

• Published in: Vaccine Vol. 18; no. 3; pp. 355 - 361
• Main Authors: Jackson, David C., Fitzmaurice, Catherine J., Brown, Lorena E., Zeng, Weiguang
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01-09-1999; Elsevier
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Antibody Formation; Applied microbiology; Artificial proteins; B-Lymphocytes - immunology; Biological and medical sciences; Epitopes - immunology; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Microbiology; Molecular Sequence Data; Synthetic peptides; T-Lymphocytes - immunology; Vaccines; Vaccines, antisera, therapeutical immunoglobulins and monoclonal antibodies (general aspects); Vaccines, Synthetic; Synthetic peptides; Vaccines; Artificial proteins; Multiple antigen peptide; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Antigenic determinant; Immunogenicity; Peptides; Mouse; Chemical bond; Rodentia; Polymerization; Recombinant protein; Polyvalent vaccine
• ISSN: 0264-410X; 1873-2518
• DOI: 10.1016/S0264-410X(99)00205-4

Although the induction of antibodies and T cells by synthetic peptides representing defined antigenic determinants is a routine laboratory procedure, their use as vaccines has not yet been generally realised. There are a number of reasons for this and paramount is the limitation of valency which affects not only immunogenicity, but also the coverage of the antigenic universe. This paper is a review of our own work in which we have assembled synthetic peptides into multivalent artificial proteins and then examined their immunological properties.