The invention describes a method and compounds for the prevention and treatment of infections with intracellular organisms, the treatment of tumors, and the prevention of infectious and allergic diseases by vaccination.

A peptide comprised of either a binary or a tertiary peptide, the peptide contains at least 4 amino acids and up to a maximum of 16 amino acids, comprised of 2 or 3 different regions, wherein the binary peptides have 2 different regions and the tertiary peptides have 3 different regions; wherein, the peptide can be cleaved by both an animal gut protease and an insect or nematode gut protease.

The present invention provides to novel prophylactic and therapeutic formulations being effective in the prevention and/or the reduction of allergenic responses to specific allergens. In particular the invention provides compositions comprising deglycosylated allergens which allergens are normally glycosylated in their natural environment. Further this invention further relates to hypoallergenic recombinant deglycosylated derivatives of the major protein allergen from Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, allergen proDerp1. Even more particularly the invention further provides hypoallergenic recombinant deglycosylated derivatives of proDerp1 of which catalytic cysteine 132 is mutated.

The present invention provides improved LAMP Constructs comprising specific fragments of the LAMP lumenal domain to deliver allergens to immune cells for enhanced processing. These LAMP Constructs can be used for the treatment of disease and in particular allergic reactions and/or allergies. The improved LAMP Constructs allow for presentation of properly configured three dimensional epitopes for production of an immune response when administered to a subject. The improved LAMP Constructs can be multivalent molecules, and/or can be provided as part of a multivalent vaccine containing two or more LAMP Constructs.

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.

The present invention relates to immunogenic peptides comprising a T-cell epitope. Said peptides are modified such that CD4+ T-cell responses are obtainable that arc much stronger than the CD4+ T-cell responses obtained with the same peptides not comprising said modification. In particular, the modification is the addition of a cysteine, insertion of a cysteine or mutation into a cysteine of a residue at a position adjacent to but outside the MIIC-binding site of the peptide. Further disclosed are the use of such modified peptides in treating, suppressing or preventing diseases such as infectious or allergic diseases and autoimmune diseases, in preventing or suppressing graft rejection, or in the eradication of tumor cells.

The present invention relates to (isolated) recombinant proteins, also referred to as improved MAT (iMAT) molecules, comprising at least one translocation module, at least one targeting module and at least one antigen module, wherein at least one cysteine residue is substituted with a different amino acid residue. Such iMAT molecules are useful specifically as vaccines, e.g. for therapy and/or prevention of allergies and/or infectious diseases and/or prevention of transmission of infectious diseases in animals, more preferably ruminants, pigs, dogs and/or cats, but excluding equines. The present invention further relates to nucleic acids encoding such iMAT molecules, corresponding vectors and primary cells or cell lines.

[Problem] To provide a nucleic acid expected to be useful for treating mite allergy.

[Means to be solved] Provided is a nucleic acid comprising a nucleotide sequence encoding a chimeric protein, wherein the nucleic acid comprises a nucleotide sequence encoding a signal peptide, a nucleotide sequence encoding an intra-organelle stabilizing domain of LAMP, a nucleotide sequence encoding an allergen domain comprising Der p 1, Der p 2, Der p 23, and Der p 7, a nucleotide sequence encoding a transmembrane domain and a nucleotide sequence encoding an endosomal/lysosomal targeting domain of LAMP in this order.

The present invention relates to a fusion protein having formula (I)

X.sub.1−Y−X.sub.2   (I),

wherein X.sub.1 and X.sub.2 comprise each four to six allergen fragments or variants thereof fused to each other, wherein said allergen fragments are derived from at least two allergens of the genus Dermatophagoides, and wherein Y is a carrier protein.

Provided are an optimized proDer f1 gene, a proDer f1 protein encoded thereby, a vector comprising said gene, and a Pichia pastoris strain. Also provided are an expression method and a purification method of the proDer f1 protein.