Albany Medical College

University of Washington

Edmund J Gosselin

Karsten Hazlett

Deborah Fuller

David R Nalin

Tiffany Zarrella

Sudeep Kumar

Timothy Sellati

Kristen M Tummillo

An approach for modifying multiple types of bacteria to produce surface modifications that enhance the immunologic response when used as a vaccine. A series of plasmids (pYF, pYFC, pYFP, pSF, pSPF, and pSCF) may be used to transform bacteria which then produce surface-exposed ligands that bind to complement receptors on antigen presenting cells. When modified bacteria are used as a vaccine, the vaccine recipients produce significantly higher titers of specific antibodies and are better protected against challenges from the disease-causing bacteria.

Autotransporter-mediated display of complement receptor ligands by bacterial immunogens

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) can be used in place of DCs when pulsing with antigens, or antigen and adjuvant combination, and then administered to a subject as a vaccine to induce a protective immune response. The PBMC-based vaccine strategy provides a more marked and enduring protective immune response and is also capable of serving as a multi-organism prophylactic vaccine platform. The vaccine platform may be used to screen vaccine and adjuvant combinations and may also be used to allow for adjuvants that are otherwise unsafe for use in humans as the adjuvant may be removed prior to prophylactic administration of the pulsed PBMCs.

Ex vivo antigen and adjuvant pulsed peripheral blood mononuclear cells as a screening platform for candidate novel vaccines and candidate antigens

An immunogenic fusion protein for use as a mucosal vaccine is provided, which includes: i) one or more FcyR1-binding domains; ii) one or more antigens from one or more infectious disease organisms; and iii) one or more FcRn-binding domains.

Multi-functional mucosal vaccine platform

Establishment of an effective and uniform vaccine development strategy is key to conquering current and emerging infectious diseases. Despite successes against an array of bacterial agents, current approaches to vaccine development are as diverse as the microbes they target and require adjuvants that often have limited efficacy and/or toxic side effects. As a consequence, vaccine discovery is often slow, inefficient, and unsuccessful in the case of many high priority pathogens. The present disclosure suggests that vaccine generation for bacterial pathogens can be improved by optimizing the efficiency of processing/presentation of a bacterial immunogen via the targeting of immunogen to CR2 and/or TLR2 on APCs. This approach not only yields an adjuvant-free mucosal vaccine against a Category A biothreat agent, but also establishes a novel genetic approach/platform for vaccine development, which is applicable to many other infectious agents, thereby profoundly impacting preventive medicine/public health.

Growing community of inventors

Glenmont, NY, United States of America

Edmund J Gosselin