The present invention relates to peptides, and amino acid and peptide conjugates, methods for making amino acid and peptide conjugates, conjugates produced by the methods, pharmaceutical compositions comprising the peptides and conjugates, methods of eliciting immune responses in a subject and methods of vaccinating a subject, uses of the peptides and conjugates for the same, and uses of the peptides and conjugates in the manufacture of medicaments for the same.

Provided are methods for treating cancer using local administration of certain CpG oligonucleotides (CpG ODN) and systemic administration of a checkpoint inhibitor such as an anti-PD-1 antibody, an anti-PD-L1 antibody, and/or an anti-CTLA-4 antibody. In preferred embodiments, the CpG ODN are selected based on their propensity to induce high amounts of interferon alpha (IFN-α) and T-cell activation relative to interleukin-10 (IL-10) and B-cell activation. In certain embodiments, the methods further include pretreatment with radiotherapy, to potentiate the combination immunotherapy.

The present disclosure provides methods for inducing an immune response to hepatitis C virus (HCV) in an individual. The present disclosure provides methods for treating an HCV infection in an individual.

The invention provides compositions including stabilized multilamellar lipid vesicles having crosslinked lipid bilayers (referred to herein as interbilayer-crosslinked multilamellar vesicles or ICMV) and including an ALK variant, pharmaceutical compositions containing vesicles (e.g., ICMV) including an ALK variant, and methods of treatment using such compositions. The invention provides compositions including stabilized multilamellar lipid vesicles with crosslinked lipid bilayers (e.g., an interbilayer-crosslinked multilamellar vesicle or ICMV) containing an Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) variant as an antigen that is associated with solid tumor cancers.

The invention provides compositions and methods for preventing and treating infection by Plasmodium sporozoites.

Provided herein are chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) for cancer therapy, and more particularly, CARs containing a scFv from a CD33 monoclonal antibody. Provided are immune effector cells containing such CARs, and methods of treating proliferative disorders such as acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and relapsed or refractory AML.

Provided are polynucleotides and viral vectors, particularly, alphavirus vectors such as Sindbis viral vectors, which encode multiple, e.g., two or more, epitopes of at least one tumor associated antigen in which each epitope is separated by a processing or enzyme cleavage site. The multiple epitopes of the two or more tumor associated antigens encoded by the described polynucleotides and viral vectors may be the same or different. Methods of treating mammalian subjects having a cancer or tumor expressing the tumor associated antigen epitopes are provided, in which the viral vectors encoding the multiple epitopes, as well as other immunostimulatory or immunomodulatory components, generate an anti-cancer or anti-tumor immune response in which high levels of effector T cells increase the survivability of tumored mammalian subjects and result in epitope spreading, thus providing a further enhancement of the immune response.

Provided are polynucleotides and viral vectors, particularly, alphavirus vectors such as Sindbis viral vectors, which encode multiple, e.g., two or more, epitopes of at least one tumor associated antigen in which each epitope is separated by a processing or enzyme cleavage site. The multiple epitopes of the two or more tumor associated antigens encoded by the described polynucleotides and viral vectors may be the same or different. Methods of treating mammalian subjects having a cancer or tumor expressing the tumor associated antigen epitopes are provided, in which the viral vectors encoding the multiple epitopes, as well as other immunostimulatory or immunomodulatory components, generate an anti-cancer or anti-tumor immune response in which high levels of effector T cells increase the survivability of tumored mammalian subjects and result in epitope spreading, thus providing a further enhancement of the immune response.

Knockout of the meningococcal mltA homolog gives bacteria that spontaneously release vesicles that are rich in immunogenic outer membrane proteins and that can elicit cross-protective antibody responses with higher bactericidal titres than OMVs prepared by normal production processes. Thus the invention provides a bacterium having a knockout mutation of its mltA gene. The invention also provides a bacterium, wherein the bacterium: (i) has a cell wall that includes peptidoglycan; and (ii) does not express a protein having the lytic transglycosylase activity MltA protein. The invention also provides compositions comprising vesicles that, during culture of bacteria of the invention, are released into the culture medium.

The invention describes a method and compounds for the prevention of immune responses towards allofactors, towards viral vectors used for gene therapy and gene vaccination, towards proteins to which subjects are naturally exposed, towards genetically-modified organisms and towards undesirable effects related to vaccine administration for allergic or infectious diseases.