Lipidation of intact proteins produces highly immunogenic vaccine candidates

In this study we investigate the feasibility of generating self-adjuvanting vaccines capable of inducing high titre antibody responses following the covalent attachment of the TLR2 agonist Pam(2)Cys to intact proteins. Three Pam(2)Cys-based lipid moieties were prepared which contain a solubilising spacer composed of either lysine residues or polyethyleneglycol. A model protein, hen egg white lysozyme (HEL), was lipidated individually with each of these lipid modules and the immunogenicity of the lipidated species studied in mice by measuring antibody responses. We found that lipidated HEL elicited antibodies which is much stronger than the responses obtained when the HEL was administered in Freund's adjuvant or in Alum. Little or no antibody was elicited by the lipidated HEL in CD4 T cell-deficient mice indicating that the antibody response is T cell dependent. Furthermore, the lipidated protein elicited similar antibody responses in two different strains of mice indicating that sufficient helper T cell epitopes are available to enable antibody production across the histocompatability barrier. In a similar way, lipidated bovine insulin was found to be highly immunogenic in mice despite the largely conserved sequences of bovine and murine insulin. The results provide evidence that lipidation of proteins provides a simple and safe method for the manufacture of soluble self-adjuvanting protein-based vaccines.