The present application provides methods for stimulating an immune response in an individual comprising administering a composition of nucleated cells (e.g., PBMCs) comprising an intracellular exogenous antigen in conjunction with administering an immunoconjugate comprising a variant IL-2 polypeptide and a second polypeptide. The variant IL-2 polypeptide exhibits reduced affinity to the α-subunit of the IL-2 receptor. The second polypeptide targets a tumor cell or a T cell.

This invention relates to the treatment of cervical tumor caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. In particular, the invention provides methods for improving cervical tumor treatment and methods for treating cervical tumor caused by HPV infection using a polynucleotide encoding an E6/E7 fusion protein.

This present invention relates to compositions and methods for stabilizing a dried vaccine formulations. In particular, the invention provides a method for producing a vaccine composition comprising the steps of providing an aqueous composition comprising a buffer, the vaccine components and between 17.5% w/w and 60% w/w of a non-polymeric sugar, freezing the composition, and applying microwave radiation under a pressure lower than atmospheric pressure in order to sublimate the composition and obtain a dried vaccine formulation. The invention also provides a product obtainable by this method.

Vaccine compositions for use in inducing enhanced antigen-specific T cell-mediated immune responses in a subject in need thereof are disclosed. The composition comprises (a) a therapeutically effective amount of an immunogenic protein comprising at least an antigen of a pathogen; (b) a saponin-base adjuvant selected from the group consisting of GPI-0100, Quil A, QS-21; and (c) a Toll-like receptor (TLR) agonist adjuvant selected from the group consisting of monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL), and CpG1826.

The invention relates to a mutated HPV39 L1 protein (or a variant thereof), a sequence encoding the same, a method for preparing the same, and a virus-like particle comprising the same, wherein the protein (or a variant thereof) and the virus-like particle can induce the generation of neutralizing antibodies against at least two HPV types (e.g. HPV39 and HPV68, or HPV39, HPV68 and HPV70), and therefore can be used to prevent infection by said at least two HPV types, and a disease caused by said infection, such as cervical cancer and condyloma acuminatum. The invention further relates to the use of the protein and the virus-like particle in the manufacture of a pharmaceutical composition or a vaccine for preventing infection by said at least two HPV types, and a disease caused by said infection, such as cervical cancer and condyloma acuminatum.

Protein antigens are provided. The protein antigens typically include a peptide antigen conjugated or fused to a chaperone protein to form a “chaperone-antigen” that increases lymph node uptake; improves an immune response; or a combination thereof relative to the peptide antigen alone. The immune response can be, for example, increased antigen-specific proliferation, enhanced cytokine production, stimulation of differentiation and/or effector functions, promotion of survival, rescue from exhaustion and/or anergy of T cells, or a combination thereof. Chaperon-antigens can also be used to induce tolerance and increase immune suppressive responses. In the most preferred embodiments, the peptide antigen is fused to the chaperone protein to form a fusion protein. The “chaperone-antigen” can be combined with an adjuvant to form a vaccine and administered to a subject to modulate an immune response to the antigen. Methods of increasing immune responses, treating cancer and infectious and inducing tolerance are also provided.

Embodiments of the present invention provide for novel compositions and methods for making and using a thermally stable human papilloma virus (HPV) formulation or other stabilized multimeric virus formulation. Certain embodiments concern lyophilizing HPV formulations in the presence or absence of adjuvants. Other embodiments concern lypophilizing HPV capsomere vaccines in order to increase stability of an immunogenic composition against HPV infection for storage, delivery and use. In yet other embodiments, a single immunogenic composition can include a thermally stable formulation of multiple virus serotypes. Yet other embodiments disclosed herein concern multi-targeted antigen complexes lyophilized in formulations of use to prolong stability and/or enhance immunogenicity. Other embodiments concern exposing lyophilized multi-targeted antigen complexes to elevated temperatures to enhance immunogenicity of the antigens of the complex to multiple pathogens.

The present disclosure provides, among other things, a pharmaceutical composition that includes a lipid nanoparticle adjuvant and an anti-human papillomavirus (HPV) comprising HPV virus-like particles (VLPs) of at least one type of human papillomavirus (HPV) selected from the group consisting of HPV types: 6, 11, 16, 18, 26, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 53, 55, 56, 58, 59, 66, 68, 73, and 82.

Some embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to methods and compositions for the treatment of tumors, using a combination of immunotherapeutic agents and tumor-targeting viral capsid protein assemblages comprising anti-cancer molecules conjugated to viral capsid proteins.

Provided herein are nucleic acid molecules encoding an HPV antigen. Also provided are vaccines against human papillomavirus (HPV) comprising the nucleic acids, methods of inducing immune responses, and methods for prophylactically and/or therapeutically immunizing individuals against recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP). Pharmaceutical compositions, recombinant vaccines comprising DNA plasmid and live attenuated vaccines are disclosed as well as methods of inducing an immune response to treat or prevent RRP are disclosed.