Reflecting recent work in the Compton and Connor Labs

Eliciting an antihapten antibody response to vaccination typically requires the use of constructs where multiple copies of the hapten are covalently attached to a larger carrier molecule. The carrier is required to elicit T cell help via presentation of peptide epitopes on major histocompatibility complex, MHC, class II molecules; as such, attachment to full-sized proteins, alone or in a complex, is generally used to account for the significant MHC diversity in humans.

While such carrier-based vaccines have proven extremely successful, particularly in protecting against bacterial diseases, they can be challenging to manufacture, and repeated use can be compromised by pre-existing immunity against the carrier. One approach to reducing these complications is to recruit help from type I natural killer T, NKT, cells, which exhibit limited diversity in their antigen receptors and respond to glycolipid antigens presented by the highly conserved presenting molecule CD1d. Synthetic vaccines for universal use can, therefore, be prepared by conjugating haptens to an NKT cell agonist such as α-galactosylceramide, αGalCer, KRN7000. An additional advantage is that the quality of NKT cell help is sufficient to overcome the need for an extra immune adjuvant. However, while initial studies with αGalCer-hapten conjugate vaccines report strong and rapid antihapten antibody responses, they can fail to generate lasting memory.

Senior authors Benji Compton and Lisa Connor

This collaborative work between the Compton Group at the Ferrier Research Institute at Victoria University of Wellington, NZ, and the Connor Group at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research, Wellington, NZ, published in ACS Chemical Biology shows that antibody responses to the hapten 4-hydoxy-3-nitrophenyl acetyl, NP, can be improved through additional attachment of a fusion peptide containing a promiscuous helper T cell epitope, Pan DR epitope, PADRE, that binds diverse MHC class II molecules.

Such αGalCer-hapten-peptide tricomponent vaccines generate strong and sustained anti-NP antibody titers with increased hapten affinity compared to vaccines without the helper epitope. The tricomponent vaccine platform is therefore suitable for further exploration in the pursuit of efficacious antihapten immunotherapies.