HIV vaccine development by computer assisted design: the GAIA vaccine

Immunization with cross-conserved H1N1 influenza CD4+T-cell epitopes lowers viral burden in HLA DR3 transgenic mice

“…Epitopes were assembled in a random sequence at first and then re-ordered to avoid creation of novel epitopes at epitope junctions using the VaccineCAD algorithm. 30 No spacer sequences were required for insertion at epitope junctions to eliminate junctional immunogenicity. A histidine tag was incorporated downstream of the epitope sequences followed by two stop codons.…”

T-Cell Vaccine Strategies for Human Immunodeficiency Virus, the Virus with a Thousand Faces

“…Rather than simply linking epitopes, the vaccine was specifically engineered to attempt to enhance correct processing and to minimize unnatural junctional epitopes (63). (De Groot and colleagues have proposed a similar design strategy, deriving consensus epitopes and computationally attempting to minimize junctional epitopes [25].) Studies with the polyepitope vaccine in HLA transgenic mice indicated that multiple epitopes in the construct could elicit immune responses (95).…”

A call to cellular & humoral arms: Enlisting cognate T cell help to develop broad-spectrum vaccines against influenza A

“…Of the 20 ICS peptides now tested, 19 provoked IFN-gamma release from HIV+ human PBMC as measured in ELISpot assays; the intensity of T cell responseranging 200 to 500 spot-forming cells per peptide was substantial for immunocompromised HIV+ subjects. 124 By focusing on conserved, MHC-promiscuous T-helper epitopes, the ICS approach has the potential to efficiently overcome the genetic variability of both virus and host.…”