The adjuvant effect of melanin is superior to incomplete Freund's adjuvant in subunit/peptide vaccines in mice.

Peptide vaccines represent an attractive alternative to conventional anti-tumor therapies, but have not yet achieved significant clinical efficacy with commonly used formulations. Combination of short antigenic peptides, synthetic melanin and TLR9 agonist (Toll-like receptor 9, CpG-28) was reported as highly efficient to trigger strong CD8 + T-cell responses. We compared this vaccine approach to the standard adjuvant formulation that combines the incomplete Freund's adjuvant (IFA) and CpG-28, using either an ovalbumin epitope (pOVA30) or a spontaneously occurring tumor neoepitope (mAdpgk).

Clinical Protocol to Prevent Thrombogenic Effect of Liver-Derived Mesenchymal Cells for Cell-Based Therapies.

The efficacy of mesenchymal stem cell infusion is currently tested in numerous clinical trials. However, therapy-induced thrombotic consequences have been reported in several patients. The aim of this study was to optimize protocols for heterologous human adult liver-derived progenitor cell (HHALPC) infusion, in order to eliminate acute thrombogenesis in liver-based metabolic or acute decompensated cirrhotic (ADC) patients.