A single blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, single-center phase I clinical trial of a CD8(+) T-cell peptide epitope vaccine against infectious mononucleosis was conducted with 14 HLA B*0801-positive, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-seronegative adults. The vaccine comprised the HLA B*0801-restricted peptide epitope FLRGRAYGL and tetanus toxoid formulated in a water-in-oil adjuvant, Montanide ISA 7...

Wilms' Tumour 1 (WT1) is a zinc finger transcription factor that is over-expressed in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). Its restricted expression in normal tissues makes it a promising target for novel immunotherapies aiming to accentuate the cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) response against AML. Here we report a phase I/II clinical trial of subcutaneous peptide vaccination with two separate HLA-A2-bi...

Optimal vaccine strategies must be identified for improving T-cell vaccination against infectious and malignant diseases. MelQbG10 is a virus-like nano-particle loaded with A-type CpG-oligonucleotides (CpG-ODN) and coupled to peptide(16-35) derived from Melan-A/MART-1. In this phase IIa clinical study, four groups of stage III-IV melanoma patients were vaccinated with MelQbG10, given (i) with ...

Formalin-killed promastigotes (FKP) of Leishmania major, in combination with Montanide ISA 720 (MISA), BCG or alum were used in vaccination of an inbred murine model against cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL). Significant and specific increases in anti-FKP IgG responses were detected for both alum-FKP and BCG-FKP compared to MISA-FKP (p < 0.001). Significant increases in splenic lymphocyte recall pro...

Previous cancer vaccination trials often aimed to activate CD8(+) cytotoxic T-cell (CTL) responses with short (8-10mer) peptides and targeted CD4(+) helper T cells (TH) with HLA class II-binding longer peptides (12-16 mer) that were derived from tumor antigens. Accordingly, a study of immunomonitoring focused on the detection of CTL responses to the short, and TH responses to the long, peptides...

Pfs25 is a leading candidate for a malaria transmission-blocking vaccine whose potential has been demonstrated in a phase 1 trial with recombinant Pfs25 formulated with Montanide ISA51. Because of limited sequence polymorphism, the anti-Pfs25 antibodies induced by this vaccine are likely to have transmission-blocking or -reducing activity against most, if not all, field isolates. To test this h...

Cancer immunotherapy is attractive for antigen-specific T cell-mediated anti-tumor therapy, especially in induction of cytotoxic T lymphocytes. In this report, we evaluated human CTL epitope-induced anti-tumor effects in human lung cancer xenograft models. The tumor associated antigen L6 (TAL6) is highly expressed in human lung cancer cell lines and tumor specimens as compared to normal lung ti...

Malaria parasites engage a multitude of strategies to evade the immune system of the host, including the generation of polymorphic T cell epitope sequences, termed altered peptide ligands (APLs). Herein we use an animal model to study how single amino acid changes in the sequence of the circumsporozoite protein (CSP), a major target antigen of pre-erythrocytic malaria vaccines, can lead to a re...

The glutamate-aspartate transporter GLAST is a radial glia marker that is highly expressed in GL261 stem-like cells (GSCs). To target GLAST, we treated glioma-bearing mice with three subcutaneous injections of four GLAST peptides emulsified with Montanide ISA-51 in association with granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) injections. Vaccination with GLAST peptides significantl...

PURPOSE A heterophilic ganglioside cancer vaccine was developed by combining NeuGcGM3 with the outer membrane protein complex of Neisseria meningitidis to form very small size proteoliposomes (VSSP). A phase I clinical trial was performed to determine safety and immunogenicity of this vaccine. PATIENTS AND METHODS Stage III to IV breast cancer patients received up to 15 (200 micro g) doses of...