Methods and compositions related to immunogenic fibrils
Embodiments of the invention are directed to fibrillar adjuvants. Epitopes assembled into nanofibers by a short synthetic fibrillization domain elicited high antibody titers in the absence of any adjuvant.
1. An immunogenic composition comprising a peptide fibril coupled to a plurality of antigens, wherein the peptide fibril comprises a plurality of self-assembling peptides, wherein the self-assembling peptide comprises an amino acid sequence of QQKFQFQFEQQ (SEQ ID NO: 1), and wherein an antigen is covalently coupled to a terminus of a self-assembling peptide.
2. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the peptide fibril has a length of at least 0.5 to 100 μm.
3. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the peptide fibril has a molecular weight of at least 10,000 da-7×10 8 da.
4. The composition of claim 1 , wherein an antigen is covalently coupled to the carboxy terminus of the self-assembling peptide.
5. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the antigens are peptides.
6. The composition of claim 5 , wherein the antigens are T cell and/or B cell epitopes.
7. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the antigens are polypeptides.
8. The composition of claim 7 , wherein the polypeptides are covalently coupled to the peptide fibril via a cutinase polypeptide.
9. A method of inducing an immune response to an antigen comprising administering the immunogenic composition of claim 1 in an amount sufficient to induce an immune response.