Synthetic bacterial lipopeptide analogs: structural requirements for adjuvanticity

Synthetic analogs of bacterial lipoproteins were described more than a decade ago, but their capacity to act as adjuvants has been only recently dissected. These low molecular weight non-immunogenic molecules can be reproducibly synthetized, are safe, and of easy handling and administration. Furthermore, new experimental data from our laboratory reveal their powerful adjuvant effect on human HLA-I/II restricted T cell responses and identify the molecular and cellular requirements for optimal adjuvanticity.