Abstract.
Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) have been shown to improve antigen loading of dendritic cell vaccines. Here we asked whether fusion of a CPP to a protein improves its immunogenicity when this fusion protein is directly applied as vaccine. We used the cell-penetrating translocation motif (TLM) derived from the hepatitis B virus, because no size limitation of cargos has been observed. Increased immunogenicity was observed when TLM was fused to ovalbumin (TLM-ova). TLM-ova was found to be superior to ova in inducing proliferation and cytotoxicity of ova-specific CD8+ T cells in vitro and in vivo. Using ovalbumin-expressing thymoma cells (EG7-ova), an improved anti-tumor immune response was observed for TLM-ova vaccination versus vaccination with ova. Moreover, TLM-ova vaccination induced a higher titer of anti-ovalbumin IgG2a antibodies compared to ova. These data demonstrate that CPP-protein vaccines can improve cellular as well as humoral immune responses.
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Received 16 November 2005; received after revision 12 December 2005; accepted 10 January 2006
†These authors contributed equally to this work
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bleifuss, E., Kammertoens, T., Hutloff, A. et al. The translocation motif of hepatitis B virus improves protein vaccination. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 63, 627 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-005-5548-7
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-005-5548-7