HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Jin, L. Articles by Liu, J. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Jin, L. Articles by Liu, J.

A Th1-Recognized Peptide P277, When Tandemly Repeated, Enhances a Th2 Immune Response toward Effective Vaccines against Autoimmune Diabetes in Nonobese Diabetic Mice¹

Liang Jin^*, Aihua Zhu, Yu Wang^*, Qingmei Chen^*, Qiyan Xiong^*, Jianping Li^*, Yunxiao Sun^*, Taiming Li^*, Rongyue Cao^*, Jie Wu^* and Jingjing Liu^2,*

^* Minigene Pharmacy Laboratory, Biopharmaceutical College, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China; and Key Laboratory of Biotechnology for Medicinal Plants of Jinangsu Province, Xuzhou Normal University, People’s Republic of China

Subunit immunogens containing tandemly repeated copies of T and B cell epitopes have been shown to be more immunogenic than the respective immunogen containing only a single copy of the sequence. To investigate whether the increased copies of the Th2-activated peptide sequence will enhance the Th2-like immune response, we compared the cytokine secreted in mice that inoculated with two immunogens containing one or six tandemly repeated copies of a Th2-activated peptide sequence P277. Immunization of mice with a 6xP277 fusion protein elicited much higher levels of Th2-type cytokines and lower Th1-type cytokines than with a fusion protein with one P277 peptide. The data of tandemly repeated peptide P277 potentiate the anti-inflammatory in NOD mice, most likely associated with a Th1 to Th2 cytokine shift specific for the autoimmune T cells, which suggested that application of multiple tandem repeats of a Th2-activated epitope is an efficient method to enhance the anti-inflammatory immune response by shifting the immune response from Th1-like to Th2-like. The subunit immunogens containing tandemly repeated copies of peptide P277 might be effective vaccines against autoimmune diabetes in NOD mice.

The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

¹ This work was supported by the National High Technology "863" Programs of China (2002 AA217031-2) and China National Natural Science Fund Committee (Grants 30701023, 30672464, and 30500458).

² Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Jingjing Liu, Minigene Pharmacy Laboratory, Biopharmaceutical College, China Pharmaceutical University, Tongjia Xiang 24, Nanjing, 210009, People’s Republic of China. E-mail address: minigene1{at}yahoo.com.cn

³ Abbreviation used in this paper: HSP, heat shock protein.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. Fang, Y. Lu, K. Ouyang, G. Wu, H. Zhang, Y. Liu, Y. Chen, M. Lin, H. Wang, L. Jin, et al. Specific Antibodies Elicited by a Novel DNA Vaccine Targeting Gastrin-Releasing Peptide Inhibit Murine Melanoma Growth In Vivo Clin. Vaccine Immunol., July 1, 2009; 16(7): 1033 - 1039. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]