Materials and methods useful for generating highly mannosylated pseudotyped lentiviral vector particles comprising a Vpx protein are provided.

In some embodiments, described herein is a method of tumor treatment or tumor vaccination. The method generally comprises applying to a human being in need thereof a tumor therapeutic composition or tumor vaccine defined herein. The tumor therapeutic composition or tumor vaccine can be produced by protein transfer of glycosyl-phosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored immunostimulatory or costimulatory molecules.

Described herein is a method of preventing or treating a disease in a mammalian subject, comprising administering to the subject who is in need thereof an effective dosage of a pharmaceutical composition comprising a virus like particle (VLP) comprising: an alphavirus replicon comprising a recombinant polynucleotide, wherein the polynucleotide comprises a sequence encoding both subunits of a human class II major histocompatibility antigen, a retroviral gag protein, and a fusogenic envelope protein, wherein the VLP does not contain an alphavirus structural protein gene.

The present invention relates to the prevention and treatment of disease like cancer. The inventors have previously characterized MELOE-1 antigen as an IRES dependent, melanoma specific translation product from a lncRNA mainly transcribed in the melanocytic lineage. MELOE-1 contains numerous class II epitopes and one HLA-A*0201-restricted CD8 epitope eliciting a frequent repertoire of high avidity T cells. They designed various synthetic long peptide (SLPs) comprising a CD4 epitope coupled to the CD8 epitope by a serie of linkers of 4 to 6 aa and studied the efficacy of T cell clone activation by SLP-loaded DC in vitro. Particularly, they evaluated the ability of a few selected SLPs to stimulate specific T cells proliferation of PBL from healthy donors in vitro and finally, they explored the vaccination potential of their best SLP candidate in vivo in an HLA*A0201/HLA-DRB0101 transgenic mouse. Thus, the present invention relates a SLP comprising a CD4 class II peptide linked to a CD8 class I peptide by a specific linker and its use in the treatment of disease like cancers.

Provided herein are HLA-PEPTIDE targets and antigen binding proteins that bind HLA-PEPTIDE targets. Also disclosed are methods for identifying the HLA-PEPTIDE targets as well as identifying one or more antigen binding proteins that bind a given HLA-PEPTIDE target.

Provided are isolated TCRs, TCR-like molecules, and portions thereof that bind to phosphopeptide-HLA-A2 complexes. The isolated TCRs, TCR-like molecules, or portions are optionally soluble TCRs, TCR-like molecules, or portions. Also provided are isolated nucleic acids encoding the disclosed TCRs, TCR-like molecules, or portions; host cells that contain the disclosed TCRs, TCR-like molecules, or portions; pharmaceutical compositions that include the disclosed TCRs, TCR-like molecules, portions, nucleic acids, and/or T cells; kits; and methods of using the same.

A novel vaccine that can induce sufficiently high cell-mediated immunity is disclosed. The vaccine of the present invention contains, as an effective component, a polypeptide comprising a tandem repeat structure in which an MHC class I epitope region derived from an antigen protein and a spacer sequence are linked to each other alternately and repeatedly at least three times, or a recombinant vector which comprises a polynucleotide encoding said polypeptide and is capable of expressing said polypeptide in vivo. The spacer sequence is, for example, a sequence generated as an amino acid sequence inevitably encoded by a single base sequence which is designed such that the MHC class I epitope region derived from the antigen protein, an MHC class II epitope region derived from the antigen protein, and at least one higher-order-structure-stabilizing region are encoded by different reading frames in said single base sequence.

A novel vaccine that can induce sufficiently high cell-mediated immunity is disclosed. The vaccine of the present invention contains, as an effective component, a polypeptide comprising a tandem repeat structure in which an MHC class I epitope region derived from an antigen protein and a spacer sequence are linked to each other alternately and repeatedly at least three times, or a recombinant vector which comprises a polynucleotide encoding said polypeptide and is capable of expressing said polypeptide in vivo. The spacer sequence is, for example, a sequence generated as an amino acid sequence inevitably encoded by a single base sequence which is designed such that the MHC class I epitope region derived from the antigen protein, an MHC class II epitope region derived from the antigen protein, and at least one higher-order-structure-stabilizing region are encoded by different reading frames in said single base sequence.

Provided herein are immunogenic compositions comprising a recombinant modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) comprising a nucleic acid sequence encoding a CD40 ligand (CD40L) and a nucleic acid sequence encoding a heterologous disease-associated antigen, wherein the immunogenic composition induces increases T-cell immune responses specific for the heterologous disease-associated antigen when administered to a human host, and related methods and uses.

The success of anti-tumor immune responses requires effector T cells to infiltrate solid tumors, a process guided by chemokines. Herein, we demonstrate that in vivo post-translational processing of chemokines by dipeptidylpeptidase 4 (DPP4, also known as CD26) limits lymphocyte migration to sites of inflammation and tumors. Inhibition of DPP4 enzymatic activity enhanced tumor rejection by preserving biologically active CXCL10, and increasing trafficking into the tumor by lymphocytes expressing the counter-receptor CXCR3. Furthermore, DPP4 inhibition improved adjuvant-based immunotherapy, adoptive T cell transfer and checkpoint blockade. These findings provide the first direct in vivo evidence for controlling lymphocyte trafficking through CXCL10 cleavage and support the use of DPP4 inhibitors for stabilizing the biologically active form of chemokines as a strategy to enhance tumor immunotherapy.