Peptides for Vaccine Development

Abstract

This review discusses peptide epitopes used as antigens in the development of vaccines in clinical trials as well as future vaccine candidates. It covers peptides used in potential immunotherapies for infectious diseases including SARS-CoV-2, influenza, hepatitis B and C, HIV, malaria, and others. In addition, peptides for cancer vaccines that target examples of overexpressed proteins are summarized, including human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2), mucin 1 (MUC1), folate receptor, and others. The uses of peptides to target cancers caused by infective agents, for example, cervical cancer caused by human papilloma virus (HPV), are also discussed. This review also provides an overview of model peptide epitopes used to stimulate non-specific immune responses, and of self-adjuvanting peptides, as well as the influence of other adjuvants on peptide formulations. As highlighted in this review, several peptide immunotherapies are in advanced clinical trials as vaccines, and there is great potential for future therapies due the specificity of the response that can be achieved using peptide epitopes.

Intramuscular injection of a mixture of COVID-19 peptide vaccine and tetanus vaccine in horse induced neutralizing antibodies against authentic virus of SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant

“…Our 45 peptides correspond to many parts of the SARS-CoV-2 S protein, i.e., from residue 54 to residue 1252, and the length of these 45 peptides varies between 12mer and 33mer. Thus, our COVID-19 peptide vaccine should elicit both B-cell and T-cell immune responses to the SARS-CoV-2 S protein, including viral neutralizing antibodies [2] , [5] , [6] . As shown below, 17 of the 45 peptides match 8 mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 S protein.…”

“…Our novel vaccine strategy, i.e., taking advantage of both the adjuvant and the tetanus toxoid in a tetanus vaccine, is different from other COVID-19 peptide vaccine strategies published in the literature, i.e., focusing on B-cell and T-cell epitope identification and adjuvant development [2] , [3] , [4] , [5] , [19] , [20] , [21] , [22] , [23] . Furthermore, we used authentic viruses in neutralization assay whereas others did not.…”

“…The disadvantage of peptide vaccine is low efficacy, resulting from its low immunogenicity. Although many clinical trials have been conducted, the progress is slow [2] , [3] . United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not yet approved or authorized any peptide vaccine for human use against any disease.…”

Amino acid containing amphiphilic hydrogelators with antibacterial and antiparasitic activities

“…9 Natural amino acid-based hydrogels have attracted interest not only for the formation of hydrogels via non-covalent interactions but also for their uses in different fields of research work. [10][11][12][13][14] They have a wide variety of applications in tissue engineering, 15 cell culture, 16,17 sustained release of drugs and biomolecules, 18,19 drug delivery, 20 vaccine development, 21 wastewater treatment, 14,22,23 wound healing, 24 antimicrobial, [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] and others. 22,23,33,34 Peptides and natural amino acid-based supramolecular hydrogels are desirable candidates to prepare biomaterials due to their biocompatibility and biodegradability.…”

Label-Free Analysis of Binding and Inhibition of SARS-Cov-19 Spike Proteins to ACE2 Receptor with ACE2-Derived Peptides by Surface Plasmon Resonance

“… 31 This has been shown in a recent work where emerging SARS-CoV-2 mutants are no longer targeted by antibodies effective against the original strain. 32 On the other hand, as human proteins evolve at a much slower rate, peptides and proteins that mimic the human side of the binding interaction will not lose effectiveness and may facilitate the development of COVID-19 treatments or vaccines 33 that are independent of further viral mutation. Overall, peptide and protein therapies have shown to be highly specific, display low interference with nontarget biological systems, are excellently tolerated in humans, and can even enjoy faster FDA approval times.…”