Self-assembling peptide nanofiber vaccines elicit robust cytotoxic T cell responses (P4515)

• Published in: The Journal of immunology (1950) 2013-05, Vol.190 (1_Supplement), p.179-179.20
• Main Authors: Rudra, Jai, Chesson, Brent, Huelsmann, Erica, Lacek, Andrew, Zloza, Andrew
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0022-1767; 1550-6606
• DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.190.Supp.179.20

Vaccines that elicit robust CTL responses are desirable for protection against infectious diseases and cancer. However, clinical vaccine adjuvants like alum elicit robust antibody responses but poor T cell responses. We recently reported that self-assembling peptides that form nanofibers in physiological buffers act as powerful immune adjuvants. When peptide antigens (OVA323-339) were linked to self-assembling peptides, strong adjuvant-free and antigen-specific antibody responses were observed in mice. The protective efficacy of antibodies induced with self-assembling peptide vaccines, was confirmed in a murine malaria model. In this study, we investigated whether self-assembling peptides bearing a CD8+ T cell epitope (OVA257-264) would elicit antigen-specific effector and memory T cell responses. Our results indicate that OVA257-264-nanofibers elicit significantly higher levels of antigen-specific T cells, IFN-γ, and protected against OVA-influenza compared to alum or IFA. These results suggest that self-assembling peptide nanofibers may be useful as adjuvants for vaccines where CD8+ T cell-mediated protection is desirable.