Carrier proteins for vaccines
View Patent ↗The present invention provides, among other things, improved carrier proteins for antigen-based vaccines, including polysaccharide-based vaccines. An aspect of the invention advantageously employs tetanus toxin Fragment C.
1. A conjugated vaccine comprising bacterial capsular polysaccharide antigen that has been conjugated to Fragment C, wherein the Fragment C does not exist in the conjugate vaccine as part of a whole tetanus toxoid molecule, and wherein the conjugate vaccine does not increase a patient's anti-tetanus titer response.
2. The conjugated vaccine according to claim 1 , wherein the bacterium is selected from the group consisting of Meningococcus group A, B, C, Y, W135 and X; Streptococcus group A, B, and C; Pneumococcus types 1, 2, 3, 4, 6A, 6B, 9, 14, 18F, 19F and 23 ; Staphylococcus aureus types 5 and 8 and Haemophilus influenzae type b.
3. The conjugate vaccine according to claim 1 , wherein the Fragment C is obtained by recombinant expression.
4. The conjugate vaccine according to claim 1 , wherein the Fragment C is obtained from a tetanus toxoid molecule via digestion of the tetanus toxoid molecule by a protease.
5. The conjugate vaccine according to claim 4 , wherein the protease is papain.
6. The conjugate vaccine according to claim 2 , wherein the bacterium is selected from the group consisting of Streptococcus group A, B, and C.