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January 29, 2003

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"Getting Peptide Vaccines to Work: Just a Matter of Quality Control?" Journal of Clinical Investigation (www.jci.org) (12/15/2002) Vol. 110, No. 12, P. 1765; Celis, Esteban

A preferred method of preventing or treating infectious disease is with synthetic peptide-based vaccines.  The products stimulate cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), which kill target cells expressing infectious or tumor-derived antigens.  However, the approach is hindered by the low immunogenicity among the peptide-based vaccines.  The utilization of adjuvants has helped to increase the response.  The additives work by either feigning pathogen danger signals or obstructing immunogen access to proteases.  Other disadvantages to peptide-based vaccines are that they cannot recognize target cells that naturally process and present the peptide epitope and the presentation of cryptic T cell epitopes.  One strategy to make the products more effective would be to improve dose evaluation and designing adjuvants that slowly release the peptides. Another method would be avoiding the utilization of peptides representing cryptic CTL epitopes.

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