Vaccibody Vaccine Constructs for Broad T Cell Epitope Coverage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vaccines often lack sufficient T cell epitopes, leading to inadequate immune responses against pathogens, especially those with frequent mutations, and require multiple vaccines for broad protection, which is inefficient and time-consuming.
Innovation Solution
A dimeric protein construct, known as a vaccibody, comprising T cell epitopes and antigens separated by linkers, targets antigen-presenting cells, eliciting strong and persistent T and B cell responses, suitable for both prophylactic and therapeutic treatments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If existing vaccines are used, then B cell response is achieved, but T cell response is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The vaccine construct is segmented into distinct functional domains: a targeting unit for antigen-presenting cell recognition, a multimerization unit for forming multimeric structures, and an antigenic unit containing both T cell epitopes and B cell antigens. This segmentation allows each component to optimize its specific function while working together synergistically.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention merges previously separate vaccine components (T cell epitopes and B cell antigens) into a single integrated construct. The antigenic unit combines multiple T cell epitopes from different pathogens with B cell antigen domains, enabling simultaneous stimulation of both T cell and B cell immune responses through one vaccine administration.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple vaccines are administered for broad protection, then coverage across strains is improved, but time consumption and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The vaccine construct is designed with universal multi-functionality by incorporating T cell epitopes from multiple different pathogens within a single antigenic unit. The multimeric structure amplifies immunogenicity while the targeting unit ensures efficient delivery to antigen-presenting cells, enabling one vaccine to provide broad protective coverage against multiple strains and pathogens simultaneously.
3Reliability
If T cell epitopes are added to vaccines, then T cell response is enhanced, but vaccine complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts and isolates specific T cell epitope sequences from complex pathogen proteins, separating only the immunologically relevant portions. These extracted epitopes are then incorporated into the structured antigenic unit, reducing the complexity compared to using whole pathogens while maintaining T cell recognition capability.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the vaccine construct have specialized local qualities optimized for their specific functions: the targeting unit contains specific motifs for antigen-presenting cell binding, the multimerization unit has structural properties for forming multimers, and the antigenic unit contains strategically positioned T cell and B cell epitopes. This local optimization enables effective immune stimulation without requiring overall structural complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
This invention relates to immunogenic constructs, such as polynucleotides, polypeptides and dimeric proteins, and vaccines comprising such immunogenic constructs, which are useful for the prophylactic and therapeutic treatment of infectious diseases, as well as methods for producing and using the immunogenic constructs and vaccines.