title: Immunological characterization of peptide mimetics of carbohydrate antigens in vaccine design strategies.
abstract: Targeting antigens which cannot be readily addressed by genetic vectors is a major challenge in vaccine design. The inter-conversion of carbohydrate antigens into peptide mimetic forms provides a means to broaden the immune response to carbohydrate antigens. Peptides that mimic carbohydrate antigens offer new possibilities to augment immune responses to such antigens that include inducing carbohydrate reactive T-cell responses. Peptide mimeotopes can be formulated in a variety of ways that include multiple antigen peptides (MAP) and as DNA vaccines that prime for different antibody isotypes. On the immunological side we observe that: (i) depending on the immunogen formulation peptide mimetics can be processed by either CD5+ or CD5-B cells; (ii) peptide mimeotope immunization can induce cross-reactive responses to multiple carbohydrate forms; (iii) priming with peptide mimeotopes can enhance carbohydrate immune responses upon boosting and (iv) immunization with peptide mimeotopes can induce carbohydrate reactive T cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, 36th and Hamilton Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104, U.S.A.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Monzavi-Karbassi
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cunto-Amesty
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lees
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kieber-Emmons
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*; D002241:Carbohydrates / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*; D007111:Immunity, Cellular; D018716:Molecular Mimicry; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*; D019444:Vaccines, DNA / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D002241:Carbohydrates; D010455:Peptides; D019444:Vaccines, DNA