Methods for the production of immunogenic compositions containing a non-natural amino acid are disclosed. The non-natural amino acid can be a site for attachment of antigens, such as bacterial capsular polysaccharides, to make immunogenic conjugates. Bio-orthogonal attachment chemistry incorporated into the non-natural amino acids allows for more efficient and potent antigen presentation to the immune system, simplified purification, and more well-defined structure of these semi-synthetic immunogens.

Described are immunogenic proteins against Clostridium difficile. Also described are compositions comprising the immunogenic proteins. Further described are methods of preventing or treating a Clostridium difficile infection in a subject in need thereof.

Chimeric capsular polysaccharides, conjugates comprising such chimeric capsular polysaccharides, and pharmaceutical compositions thereof. Further aspects include methods for immunising a subject against infection by administration of such polysaccharides, conjugates, or compositions.

The disclosure describes compositions containing PEGylated compounds using linkers, bivalent polysaccharide covalent PEG compounds, and methods of bivalent polysaccharide-PEG compounds in the development of multivalent vaccines. PEGylated conjugation of capsular polysaccharides to carrier proteins is carried out using homo-bifunctional and/or hetero-bifunctional linkers of specific lengths. Incorporation of bifunctional PEG linkers induces higher titers of functional antibodies with high avidity, eliciting higher immunologic memory, and reduced carrier protein effect. This provides immunochemically cross-reactive capsular polysaccharides wherein one or more cross-reactive capsular polysaccharides are covalently PEG compounded sequentially or concurrently to carrier protein using bifunctional linkers bearing the same or different functional groups. Such a linker and the size of the capsular polysaccharides provides an effective multivalent vaccine with high antibody titers and a reduced carrier effect, with a reduction in the content of the capsular polysaccharide and protein per dose of vaccine which reduces reactogenicity.

The present invention relates to a probiotic cell transformed with a construct suitable to overexpress and display on the surface of the probiotic cell a fusion protein comprising at least a portion of a transport protein coupled to at least a portion of one or more antigenic proteins or peptides. Probiotic-derived vesicles displaying this fusion protein as well as methods of inducing an immune response using the probiotic cells or vesicles are also disclosed.

The invention is in the field of medicine. More specifically, it is in the field of diagnosing tumor angiogenesis status and in the field of medical treatment of a subject who is suffering, suspected to suffer, or might suffer from a tumor in the future. In particular, the invention relates to a fusion polypeptide comprising a foreign antigen and a self antigen, wherein said foreign antigen consists of a polypeptide comprising an amino acid sequence of at least 12-15 amino acid residues, 12-24% of which residues are hydrophilic, bulky amino acid residues selected from the group consisting of histidine, glutamate, arginine, glutamine, aspartic acid and/or lysine.

The disclosure relates to attenuated bacterial cells expressing glycans and glycoconjugate antigens and their use in the manufacture of whole cell vaccines effective at preventing or treating bacterial infections in non-human species.

The invention relates to a virus-like particle (VLP) based vaccine. The virus-like particle constitutes a non-naturally occurring, ordered and repetitive antigen array display scaffold which can obtain a strong and long-lasting immune response in a subject. The VLP-based vaccine may be used for the prophylaxis and/or treatment of a disease including, but is not limited to, cancer, cardiovascular, infectious, chronic, neurological diseases/disorders, asthma, and/or immune-inflammatory diseases/disorders.

Provided herein are immunogenic compositions comprising a recombinant modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) comprising a nucleic acid sequence encoding a flagellin, and a nucleic acid sequence encoding a heterologous disease-associated antigen, wherein the immunogenic composition induces increased T-cell and antibody mediated immune responses specific for the heterologous disease-associated antigen when administered to a subject, e.g. a human subject, and related methods and uses.

Novel, nanoparticle-based vaccines are provided that elicit an immune response to a broad range of infectious agents, such as influenza viruses. The nanoparticles comprise a heterogeneous population of fusion proteins, each comprising a monomeric subunit of a self-assembly protein, such as ferritin, joined to one or more immunogenic portions of a protein from an infectious agent, such as influenza virus. The fusion proteins self-assemble to form nanoparticles that display a heterogeneous population of immunogenic portions on their surface. When administered to an individual, such nanoparticles elicit an immune response to different strains, types, subtypes and species with in the same taxonomic family. Thus, such nanoparticles can be used to vaccinate an individual against infection by different Types, subtypes and/or strains of infectious agents. Also provided are specific fusion proteins, nucleic acid molecules encoding such fusion proteins and methods of using nanoparticles of the invention to vaccinate individuals.