Lipid core peptides provide novel self-adjuvanting vaccine delivery system.

2003 JUL 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Lipid core peptide technology shows promise as a novel self-adjuvanting vaccine delivery system for multiple different synthetic peptide immunogens.

"This study demonstrates the effectiveness of a novel self-adjuvanting vaccine delivery system for multiple different synthetic peptide immunogens by use of lipid core peptide (LCP) technology. An LCP formulation incorporating two different protective epitopes of the surface antiphagocytic M protein of group A streptococci (GAS)-the causative agents of rheumatic fever and subsequent rheumatic heart disease-was tested in a murine parenteral immunization and GAS challenge model," researchers in Australia report.

"Mice were immunized with the LCP-GAS formulation, which contains an M protein amino-terminal type-specific peptide sequence (8830) in combination with a conserved non-host-cross-reactive carboxy-terminal C-region peptide sequence (J8) of the M protein," stated Colleen Olive and collaborators at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research and the University of Queensland. "Our data demonstrated immunogenicity of the LCP-8830-J8 formulation in B10.BR mice when co-administered in complete Freund's adjuvant and in the absence of a conventional adjuvant. In both cases, immunization led to induction of high-titer GAS peptide-specific serum immunoglobulin G antibody responses and induction of highly opsonic antibodies that did not cross-react with human heart tissue proteins.

...