Rational design of peptide vaccines becomes important for the treatment of some diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related disorders. In this study, as part of a larger effort to explore correlations of structure and activity, we attempt to characterize the doubly phosphorylated chimeric peptide vaccine targeting a hyperphosphorylated epitope of the Tau protein. The 28-mer linear chi...

Human adenovirus type 55 (HAdV55) is a newly identified re-emergent acute respiratory disease (ARD) pathogen with a proposed recombination of hexon gene between HAdV11 and HAdV14 strains. The identification of the neutralizing epitopes is important for the surveillance and vaccine development against HAdV55 infection. In this study, four type-specific epitope peptides of HAdV55 hexon protein, A...

A SARS-CoV lacking the full-length E gene (SARS-CoV-∆E) was attenuated and an effective vaccine. Here, we show that this mutant virus regained fitness after serial passages in cell culture or in vivo, resulting in the partial duplication of the membrane gene or in the insertion of a new sequence in gene 8a, respectively. The chimeric proteins generated in cell culture increased virus fitness in...

Papillomavirus-like particle (VLP)-based subunit vaccines have undergone rapid development over the past 8 years. Three types are being investigated. The most basic type is composed of only the L1 major capsid protein and is designed to prevent genital human papillomavirus (HPV) infection by inducing virus-neutralizing antibodies. On the basis of positive results in animal models, clinical tria...

Factor H-binding protein (fHbp) is a novel meningococcal vaccine candidate that elicits serum antibodies that activate classical complement pathway bacteriolysis and also inhibit binding of the complement down-regulatory protein, factor H, to the bacterial surface. One limitation of fHbp as a vaccine candidate is antigenic variability, since antibodies to fHbp in the variant 1 (v.1) antigenic g...

The C-terminal 19-kDa domain of Plasmodium falciparum merozoite surface protein 1 (PfMSP119) is an established target of protective antibodies. However, clinical trials of PfMSP142, a leading blood-stage vaccine candidate which contains the protective epitopes of PfMSP119, revealed suboptimal immunogenicity and efficacy. Based on proof-of-concept studies in the Plasmodium yoelii murine model, w...

BACKGROUND Schitosomiasis japonica is still a significant public health problem in China. A protective vaccine for human or animal use represents an important strategy for long-term control of this disease. Due to the complex life cycle of schistosomes, different vaccine design approaches may be necessary, including polyvalent subunit vaccines. In this study, we constructed four chimeric protei...