The instant invention provides various formulations comprising combinations of immunostimulating oligonucleotides, polycationic carriers, sterols, saponins, quaternary amines, TLR-3 agonists, glycolipids, and MPL-A or analogs thereof in oil emulsions, use thereof in preparations of immunogenic compositions and vaccines, and use thereof in the treatment of animals.

Vaccines, methods of producing, and methods of using are provided in which a protective response to Valley Fever disease is produced when administered to an animal. The vaccine provides for expression of Coccidioides sp. Ag2 polypeptide in a plant or plant part, linked to a promoter preferentially directing expression to seed tissue of the plant or plant part. Further embodiments provide the polypeptide is targeted to the cell wall, vacuole or endoplasmic reticulum. The polypeptide may be fused to a dendritic cell targeting dendritic cell or a heat labile enterotoxin. Increased expression levels in the plant or plant part are obtained. The vaccine comprising the plant-produced Ag2 polypeptide may be a glucan chitin particle comprising the Ag2 polypeptide. The plant or plant materials in an embodiment may be orally administered.

Materials and methods for detecting and treating Coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever) are provided herein. For example, materials and methods for enriching and detecting biomarker antigens (e.g., polypeptides and/or glycans) from Coccidioides immitis and Coccidioides posadasii, the fungi that cause Valley Fever, are described herein, as are methods for treating an individual for Valley Fever based on the results of the described detection methods.

A vaccine is disclosed that promotes CD4+ T cell-independent host defense mechanisms to defend against infection by fungi such as Pneumocystis spp. The vaccine may be used to prevent or to treat fungal infections. The novel vaccine can provide protective immunity, even for immunocompromised individuals such as HIV patients having reduced levels of CD4+ T cells.

A compound comprising one or more polysaccharide moieties each independently represented by the formula β(1.fwdarw.4)-[GlcNH—R].sub.n-2,5-anhydromannose, wherein n is a positive integer from 3 to 500, and R is H or an acyl group, is described. The compound can be manufactured by (a) reacting chitosan with an acylating agent sufficient to partially N-acylate the chitosan, yielding a modified chitin/chitosan mixed polymer; and (b) reacting the modified chitin/chitosan mixed polymer with a deaminating agent to cleave the mixed polymer at the unacylated chitosan moieties. The compound can be used to immunize against fungal infection. Antibodies specific to the compound, and the use of such antibodies to protect against fungal infection are also described.

Outer membrane vesicles from bacteria of the Burkholderia pseudomallei complex can be 5 used as adjuvants in compositions and methods to potentiate the immune response to immunogens.

The application provides a dissolvable microneedle device to deliver immune stimulants to the skin. The application also provides a method of treating a skin condition comprising applying a dissolvable microneedle device to the skin.

The present invention relates to the composition and method of preparing an immunogen designated as I-spga consisting of a complex antigen prepared from 18 to 26 species of pathogenic microorganisms isolated from patients, inactivated with binary ethyleneamine (BEI) and formalin, diluted in a SPGA immunopotentiator mixed with QS-21 adjuvant. By inoculating the hens with the I-spga immunogen, hyperimmune eggs (Immunospga) are obtained which contain immunologically active proteins specific to the 18-26 antigens used for immunization. The immune response of the hens is specific to the used antigens by amplification of the antigenic signal by the SPGA immunopotentiator and due to a special immunization program that allows the immune system to act complex and intense: The I-spga complex antigen contains 18-26 microorganisms isolated from patients, bacterial bodies, components from bodies obtained by ultrasonography, cilia, exotoxins, endotoxins, spores, viruses, fungi or yeasts. This pathogenic material is inactivated with BEI and formalin. The I-spga antigen is of three types. The standard I-spga antigen is composed of 18 to 24 antibiotic-resistant bacterial species isolated from patients in Romania. The specific I-spga complex antigen is composed of the I-spga complex antigen containing a mixture of 7-9 strains from a single species of bacteria, fungi or yeasts isolated from patients in Romania mixed with SPGA and QS-21, used for inoculation of hens previously immunized with standard I-spga antigen. The personalized I-spga antigen is composed of patient-derived pathological material containing cellular debris and pathogenic germs inactivated with BEI and formalin and mixed with SPGA and QS-21 and is used to immunize hens previously immunized with the standard I-spga antigen. This now patented technology encompasses a new generation of biological products in which the immune response of the hens to different groups of parenterally inoculated antigens at different time intervals is overlapping. Chicken response is uniform and additional administration of immunogens and SPGA as an immunopotentiator amplifies the antigenic signal and immune response. The I-spga immunogen as well as the immune response contain two markers, G and A, which identify the I-spga antigen used for immunization against the antigens used to produce the Imunoinstant group bio-preparations or similar products. The I-spga immunogen is used to immunize the hens for obtaining immunologically active proteins that can be used to treat immune deficiencies, psoriasis, epidermolysis bullosa, other dermatitises, nosocomial infections, antibiotic-resistant infections in the urinary system of children

This invention describes vaccine compositions and their methods of use utilizing inactivated fbp1Δ deletion mutant fungal cells.

The disclosure relates to polypeptides and pharmaceutical compositions comprising polypeptides that find use in the prevention or treatment of cancer, in particular breast cancer, ovarian cancer and colorectal cancer. The disclosure also relates to methods of inducing a cytotoxic T cell response in a subject or treating cancer by administering pharmaceutical compositions comprising the peptides, and companion diagnostic methods of identifying subjects for treatment. The peptides comprise T cell epitopes that are immunogenic in a high percentage of patients.