Vaccine design, polycistronic vaccine constructs, compositions, and methods comprising nucleic acids (DNA, RNA), peptides, proteins and derivatives thereof, including cells and cell-lines, for enhanced antigen-specific vaccination.

The present invention relates to an immunostimulatory composition comprising a) an adjuvant component, comprising or consisting of at least one (m)RNA, complexed with a cationic or polycationic compound, and b) at least one free mRNA, encoding at least one therapeutically active protein, antigen, allergen and/or antibody, wherein the immunostimulatory composition is capable to elicit or enhance an innate and optionally an adaptive immune response in a mammal. The inventive immunostimulatory composition may be a pharmaceutical composition or a vaccine. The invention furthermore relates to a method of preparation of the inventive immunostimulatory composition. The invention also relates to the use of the inventive immunostimulatory composition or its components (for the preparation of a pharmaceutical composition or a vaccine) for the treatment of various diseases. Finally, the invention relates to kits containing the inventive immunostimulatory composition, its components and/or the pharmaceutical composition or vaccine.

The present invention relates to an attenuated strain of Salmonella comprising at least one copy of a DNA molecule comprising an expression cassette encoding a VEGF receptor protein, for use in the treatment of cancer, wherein the treatment further comprises the administration of at least one further anti-cancer agent. The present invention further relates to a pharmaceutical composition comprising an attenuated strain of Salmonella comprising at least one copy of a DNA molecule comprising an expression cassette encoding a VEGF receptor protein, wherein the pharmaceutical composition further comprises at least one further attenuated strain of Salmonella comprising at least one copy of a further DNA molecule comprising a further expression cassette encoding a tumor antigen or a tumor stroma antigen.

The present invention provides a complex for use in the prevention and/or treatment of cancer, the complex comprising a) a cell penetrating peptide, b) at least one antigen or antigenic epitope, and c) at least one TLR peptide agonist, wherein the components a)-c) are covalently linked. In particular, compositions for use in the prevention and/or treatment of cancer, such as a pharmaceutical compositions and vaccines are provided.

The present invention relates to a recombinant herpes simplex virus (HSV) containing an expression cassette capable of expressing a fused protein of a cancer-cell-targeting domain and an extracellular domain of HVEM and the use thereof. When the recombinant HSV infects and enters target cells, which are cancer cells, HSV proliferates, and an adapter, which is the fused protein, is expressed in the cells and is released to the outside of the cells along with the proliferated HSV virion upon cell lysis, or is released even before the virion is released due to cell lysis when the adapter contains a leader sequence, and the fused protein released to the outside of the cells acts to induce the HSV virion to infect surrounding cancer cells expressing a target molecule recognized by the cancer-cell-targeting domain or to increase the infection efficiency thereof.

The invention provides vector compositions for delivering improved adoptive T cell therapies.

The present invention relates to an attenuated strain of Salmonella comprising at least one copy of a DNA molecule comprising an expression cassette encoding a VEGF receptor protein, for use in the treatment of cancer, wherein the treatment further comprises the administration of at least one further anti-cancer agent. The present invention further relates to a pharmaceutical composition comprising an attenuated strain of Salmonella comprising at least one copy of a DNA molecule comprising an expression cassette encoding a VEGF receptor protein, wherein the pharmaceutical composition further comprises at least one further attenuated strain of Salmonella comprising at least one copy of a further DNA molecule comprising a further expression cassette encoding a tumor antigen or a tumor stroma antigen.

The present invention relates to a Salmonella typhi Ty21a strain comprising a DNA molecule comprising at least one eukaryotic expression cassette encoding at least one polypeptide comprising five or more neoantigens and at least one engineered T cell, NKT cell or NK cell comprising at least one tumor antigen binding cell surface receptor for combined use in the treatment of a solid tumor in a subject.

In various embodiments methods of producing a cell population enriched for CLEC9A+ dendritic cells are provided where the methods involve culturing stem cells and/or progenitor cells in a cell culture comprising culture medium, a notch ligand, stem cell factor (SCF), FLT3 ligand (FLT3L); thrombopoietin (TPO); and IL-3 and/or GMCSF.

Disclosed herein are nucleic acid regulatory elements, expression cassettes, expression vectors, and methods for using the nucleic acid regulatory elements, expression cassettes, expression vectors for treating cone cell disorders.