Constructs for enhancing immune responses

摘要

Chimeric protein constructs including a herpesvirus glycoprotein D (gD) and a heterologous polypeptide that interact with herpes virus entry mediator (HVEM) and enhance and enhance an immune response against the heterologous polypeptide and methods for their use are provided.

主权项

1. A nucleic acid molecule which encodes a fusion protein, wherein the fusion protein comprises:
(1) a first polypeptide segment comprising at least amino acids 1-240 of a mature Herpes simplex virus (HSV) glycoprotein D, wherein the first polypeptide segment does not comprise a full length mature glycoprotein D; (2) a second polypeptide segment comprising at least one antigen, wherein the at least one antigen is not an HSV glycoprotein D antigen, wherein the N terminus of the second polypeptide segment is linked to the C terminus of the first polypeptide segment; and (3) a third polypeptide segment comprising a C terminal portion of the HSV glycoprotein D, wherein the N terminus of the third polypeptide segment is linked to the C terminus of the second polypeptide segment, wherein the at least one antigen is selected from the group consisting of:
an influenza virus antigen;a nucleoprotein P influenza virus antigen;a Plasmodium antigen;a Plasmodium antigen selected from the group consisting of thrombospondin-related anonymous protein (TRAP), ring-infected erythrocyte surface antigen (RESA), merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP1), merozoite surface protein 2 (MSP2), merozoite surface protein 3 (MSP3), and glutamate-rich antigen (GLURP);human papilloma virus (HPV) antigen;human papilloma virus HPV16 antigen;HPV E5 protein;HPV E6 protein;HPV E7 protein;a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) antigen; andan HIV gag antigen.