Ovalbumin lipid core peptide vaccines and their CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses

The lipid core peptide (LCP) system has successfully been used in development of peptide-based vaccines against cancer and infectious diseases (such as group A streptococcal infection). CD8+ T cells are important targets for vaccines, however developing a vaccine that activates long-lasting immunity has proven challenging. The ability of LCP vaccines to activate antigen-specific CD8+ and/or CD4+ T cell responses was tested using compounds that contained two or four copies of OVA257-264 and/or OVA323-339 peptides conjugated to LCP, which are recognised by OTI (CD8+ specific) and OTII (CD4+ specific) T cells, respectively. The LCP-ovalbumin vaccines developed in this study were synthesised in 30% yields and showed no significant haemolytic effect on red blood cells (below 4% haemolysis when tested with compounds at up to 100 μM concentrations). Promising in vivo data in mice suggested that this LCP-ovalbumin vaccine system could act as a novel and potent vehicle for the stimulation of robust antigen-specific CD8+ T cell responses.