Enhancement of the immune response using CD36-binding domain
The invention relates to reagents and methods for enhancing an immune response using CD36 binding region/antigen hybrid polypeptides or polynucleotides encoding the hybrid polypeptides.
1. An isolated nucleic acid molecule encoding an immunogenic chimeric polypeptide, the nucleic acid molecule comprising at least a first nucleic acid sequence positioned upstream of and in frame with a second nucleic acid sequence, wherein:
the first nucleic acid sequence encodes two domains comprising the amino acid sequence CSVTCG (SEQ ID NO: 11) separated by a spacer region of about 11 amino acids; and,
the second nucleic acid sequence encodes at least one tumor antigen or an antigen derived from an infectious agent.
2. The isolated nucleic acid molecule of claim 1 wherein the spacer region has a beta sheet conformation.
3. The isolated nucleic acid molecule of claim 2 wherein the spacer amino acids comprise DGVITRIRLCN (SEQ ID NO: 1).
4. The isolated nucleic acid molecule of claim 1 further encoding a signal nucleic acid sequence consisting essentially of an endoplasmic reticulum signal sequence and a signal peptidase cleavage sequence.
5. The isolated nucleic acid molecule of claim 1 wherein the infectious agent is selected from the group consisting of a bacterium, a parasite, a virus, a fungus, and a cancerous cell.
6. The isolated nucleic acid molecule of claim 5 wherein second nucleic acid sequence encodes a gp120 polypeptide or immunogenic fragment thereof.
7. The isolated nucleic acid molecule of claim 1 or 5 further comprising a transcriptional regulatory region operably linked to at least one of the nucleic acid sequences.
8. The isolated nucleic acid molecule of claim 7 wherein said transcriptional control region is the CMV promoter.
9. An immunogenic composition for generating an immune response in a host, the composition comprising a nucleic acid molecule of claim 1 or 5 .
10. An immunogenic composition for generating an immune response in a host, the composition comprising a nucleic acid molecule of claim 6 .
11. An immunogenic composition for generating an immune response in a host, the composition comprising a nucleic acid molecule of claim 7 .
12. An immunogenic composition for generating an immune response in a host, the composition comprising a nucleic acid molecule of claim 8 .
13. The nucleic acid molecule of claim 1 wherein the first nucleic acid sequence encodes at least the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO.: 10.