Increasing cellular immunogenicity to peptide-based vaccine candidates using a fluorocarbon antigen delivery system.

Traditionally, synthetic peptide vaccines for infectious diseases and cancer require adjuvants to achieve optimal immunogenicity. Here we describe a novel method of peptide modification using a fluorocarbon chain which can substantially increase peptide-specific cellular immune responses in the absence of adjuvant. We demonstrate that fluorocarbon-modified peptides (fluoropeptides) derived from HIV, influenza and hepatitis C virus can significantly increase interferon gamma ELISpot responses against cytotoxic and T-helper epitopes compared to unmodified peptides or lipopeptides in mice.

A novel peptide-based pan-influenza A vaccine: a double blind, randomised clinical trial of immunogenicity and safety.

Background: FP-01.1 is a novel synthetic influenza A vaccine consisting of six fluorocarbon-modified 35-mer peptides that encapsulate multiple CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell epitopes and is designed to induce an immune response across a broad population.

Methods: FP-01.