Development of a peptide-vaccine for prevention of the surface caries.

总体而言，多肽疫苗最大的优势是其突出的安全性。根据所需抗原表位的设计，可以自动和自由地合成多肽。因此，疫苗可以很容易地避免不必要和不方便的表位。在研制龋病合成肽疫苗的过程中，我们确定了唯一的13肽TYEALKQYEADL，它是诱导对变形链球菌细胞表面蛋白抗原产生交叉抑制抗体的最小抗原单位肽。然而，小肽的免疫原性通常很弱，并受到MHC II类限制的严格控制。为了研制多肽疫苗，提高多肽的免疫原性和摆脱MHC的限制是非常重要的。在本研究项目中，我们基于B10同源小鼠的动物实验数据，成功地开发出了覆盖人类多肽抗原缺点的原始设计(OMP-KK-U)。

In general, the most advantage of a peptide vaccine is its prominent safety. Peptide can be automatically and freely synthesized in accordance with the design for a desired antigenic epitope. Thus, unnecessary and inconvenient epitopes can be easily avoided from the vaccine.In the course of developing a synthetic peptide vaccine for dental caries, we identified a unique13-mer peptide, TYEAALKQYEADL, as a minimum antigenic unit peptide inducing cross-inhibiting antibodies to a cell surface protein antigen of Streptococcus mutans. However, the immunogenicity of a small peptide is usually very weak and strictly controlled by MHC class II restriction. To develop a peptide vaccine, it is very important to improve the immunogenicity of peptides and to escape from the MHC restriction. In this research project, we have succeded in developing the original design(OMP-KK-U) covering the disadvantages of peptide antigens for a human being on the basis of the data from animal experiments using B10 congenic mice.