Artificial Carriers: A Strategy for Constructing Antigenic/Immunogenic Conjugates

Abstract

The rational design of artificial carriers for anchoring multiple copies of B and/or T cell epitopes, built-in vaccine adjuvants and "promiscuous" T cell epitopes for the construction of conjugates as antigenic substrates or potent immunogens has been the stimulus of intensive efforts nowadays. The unambiguous composition, the reliability and the versatility of the production of reconstituted antigens or immunogens has found a great number of biochemical applications in developing immunoassays of high sensitivity, specificity and reproducibility and in generating site-specific antibodies for usage as human vaccine candidates. In this review are summarized different types of artificial carriers currently used as dendrimers bearing branching segments, multimeric core matrices and templates with built-in folding devices. Emphasis is given to the construction and application of a helicoid-type Sequential Oligopeptide Carrier (SOCn) developed in our laboratory. The beneficial structural elements of SOCn induce a favorable arrangement of the conjugated peptides, which also retain their initial "active" conformation, so that potent antigens and immunogens are generated.

Synthetic Peptides for the Immunodiagnosis of Human Diseases

“…As illustrate in Fig. (1), different chemistries to Chimeric peptides [38][39][40][41][42][43][44] Branched polymeric peptides poly[Lys(Ser i-DL -Ala m )] (SAK) [45][46][47] Sequential oligopeptide carriers (SOCn) [48][49][50][51][52] Multiple Antigenic Peptides (MAPs) [53,56,58,[60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68] Cyclic peptides [18,27,69,70] …”

“…As reported by Sakarellos et al the repetitive Lys-Aib-Gly (SOC(n)-I) and Aib-Lys-Aib-Gly (SOC(n)-II) units adopt 3(10)-helical structures, while the SOC(n)-conjugates retain their original active conformations and they neither interact to the carriers nor to each other [49]. The helicoid structure of SOC(n) helps the reconstitution and/or mimicking of the native forms of the epitopes so that potent antigens are generated for developing specific, sensitive and reproducible immunoassays [50][51][52].…”

The Presence of Antibodies Recognizing a Peptide Derived from the Second Conserved Region of HIV-1 gp120 Correlates with Non-Progressive HIV Infection

“…Sequential oligopeptide carrier (SOC 4 ), formed by the repetitive Lys-Aib-Gly moiety, is applied to display analyzed peptides [22]. The synthetic procedure starts with the step-by-step couplings of the protected residues (Boc/Bzl) corresponding to the SOC 4 carrier to the resin.…”

Influenza virus H5N1 hemagglutinin (HA) T‐cell epitope conjugates: design, synthesis and immunogenicity

“…SOC n is a sterically constrained scaffold, characterized by a few conformations in solution, comprising α‐aminoisobutyric acid (Aib), a strongly helicogenic C α ‐tetrasubstituted amino acid. It was found that the helical conformation of the tetrameric SOC 4 attributed mainly to the inclusion of Aib, induces a favorable arrangement of the conjugated epitopes, which retain their initial ‘active’ conformation and their potential for generating site‐specific immune responses9–12.…”