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Discover how PEPperPRINT Peptide Microarray products have been used in different fields of research.

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Preclinical characterization of an active immunotherapy targeting calcitonin gene-related peptide

Boyd, Justin D.; Wang, Shixia; Lin, Hsiao-Wen; Hsieh, Yueh-Ting; Sun, Yu Shuang; Thibodeaux, Brett A.; Lu, Hanxin; Sahni, Jaya; Wiggins, Jonathan; Longo, Matthew S.; Brooks, Jeanne K.; Vroom, Madeline M.; Chang, Yi-Pin; Liu, Zhi; Ding, Shuang; Dodart, Jean-Cosme
Commun Med.
Apr 2025
10.1038/s43856-025-00870-2
Abstract **Background** The success of passive immunotherapies targeting Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) for managing migraine has prompted our efforts towards developing an active immunotherapy that induces the production of endogenous antibodies against CGRP. Achieving efficacious antibody titers via immunization could provide a more convenient and cost-effective treatment alternative to anti-CGRP monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapies. However, immunization against endogenous CGRP faces multiple challenges such as breaking immune tolerance, inducing sufficient antibody titers, and avoiding immune response-associated toxicity. **Methods** Synthetic peptide immunogens formulated in adjuvants were delivered intramuscularly. Serum samples were collected post immunization and used to measure antibody titers as well as for the isolation of antibodies specific to CGRP. Antibodies were characterized for their binding affinities and specificities. The capsaicin-induced increase in dermal blood flow model was used in rats for the assessment of the pharmacodynamic effect of immunization. **Results** Here we demonstrate that a peptide-based active immunotherapy designed to induce antibodies against CGRP promotes robust antibody titers across preclinical species. Characterization of the immune response strongly suggests that this peptide immunogen primarily stimulates a humoral response and only induced CGRP-specific antibodies. Antibodies produced by immunization are primarily IgG1 and demonstrate binding and activity potencies similar to marketed monoclonal antibodies against CGRP. Finally, immunization demonstrates in vivo efficacy in a rat pharmacodynamic model. **Conclusion** Our results strongly suggest that a peptide-based active immunotherapy against CGRP could provide an affordable and convenient therapeutic for the prevention of migraine.

A tumor-binding antibody with cross-reactivity to viral antigens

Campa, Michael J.; Gottlin, Elizabeth B.; Wiehe, Kevin; Patz, Edward F.
Cancer Immunol Immunother.
Feb 2025
10.1007/s00262-025-03975-8
**Background** We previously identified in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients an autoantibody to complement factor H (CFH) that is associated with non-metastatic disease and longer time to progression in patients with stage I disease. A recombinant human antibody, GT103, was cloned from single B cells isolated from patients with the autoantibody. GT103 inhibits tumor growth and establishes an antitumor microenvironment. The anti-CFH autoantibody and GT103 recognize the epitope PIDNGDIT within the SCR19 domain of CFH. Here, we asked if this autoantibody could have originally arisen as a humoral response to a similar epitope in a viral protein from a prior infection. **Methods** Homologous viral peptides with high sequence identity to the core PIDNGDIT epitope sequence were identified and synthesized. NSCLC patient plasma containing anti-CFH autoantibodies were assayed by ELISA against these peptides. GT103 was assayed on a 4345-peptide pathogen microarray. **Results** Epitopes similar to the GT103 epitope are present in several viruses, including human metapneumovirus-1 (HMPV-1) that contains a sequence within attachment glycoprotein G that differs by one amino acid. Anti-CFH autoantibodies in NSCLC patient plasma weakly bound to an HMPV-1 peptide containing the epitope. GT103 cross-reacted with multiple viral epitopes on a peptide microarray, with the top hits being peptides in the human endogenous retrovirus-K polymerase (HERV-K pol) protein and measles hemagglutinin glycoprotein. GT103 bound the viral HMPV-1, HERV-K pol, and measles epitope peptides but with lower affinity compared to the GT103 epitope peptide. **Conclusion** These findings suggest that memory B cells against a viral target could have affinity matured to produce an antibody that recognizes a similar epitope on tumor cells and exhibits antitumor properties.

HCV immunodominant peptide mapping reveals unique HLA-A*02-restricted signatures: insights for CD8+ T-cell-based vaccines and immunotherapies

Cardoso Corrêa-Dias, Laura; Lopes-Ribeiro, Ágata; Marques-Ferreira, Geovane; Gomes-de-Pontes, Letícia; Pereira-Santos, Thaiza Aline; De Sousa Reis, Erik Vinicius; Silva Moraes, Thaís De Fátima; Assis Martins-Filho, Olindo; Figueiredo Barbosa-Stancioli, Edel; Guimarães Da Fonseca, Flávio; Coelho-dos-Reis, Jordana Grazziela
Immunogenetics.
Jan 2025
10.1007/s00251-025-01370-2
Several barriers for the development of an HCV vaccine still exist, including the genetic diversity of the virus, and the shortage of assessable models for in vitro and in vivo assays. Therefore, in this study, HCV epitope mapping was performed for 59 polyprotein sequences from 7 HCV genotypes. Around 2,880 peptides were considered epitopes for CD8+ T cells. The peptide induction of cytokines from Th1 and/or Th2 axes of the cellular immune response was assessed, indicating a tendency for Th2 axis. In vitro evaluation was performed using peptide microarray and a recombinant HLA-A*02:01 molecule. A total of 615 peptides of high reactivity to HLA-A*02:01 were identified, with predominance of leucine and tryptophan residues, highlighting their importance for TCR-epitope binding and CD8+ T activation. Finally, HCV-derived peptide patterns restricted to HLA-A2*02:01 observed in this study provide important information for the development of a multi-epitope-based pan-genotypic vaccine against the virus.

Vaccine-elicited and naturally elicited antibodies differ in their recognition of the HIV-1 fusion peptide

Reveiz, Mateo; Xu, Kai; Lee, Myungjin; Wang, Shuishu; Olia, Adam S.; Harris, Darcy R.; Liu, Kevin; Liu, Tracy; Schaub, Andrew J.; Stephens, Tyler; Wang, Yiran; Zhang, Baoshan; Huang, Rick; Tsybovsky, Yaroslav; Kwong, Peter D.; Rawi, Reda
Front. Immunol..
Nov 2024
10.3389/fimmu.2024.1484029
Broadly neutralizing antibodies have been proposed as templates for HIV-1 vaccine design, but it has been unclear how similar vaccine-elicited antibodies are to their naturally elicited templates. To provide insight, here we compare the recognition of naturally elicited and vaccine-elicited antibodies targeting the HIV-1 fusion peptide, which comprises envelope (Env) residues 512–526, with the most common sequence being AVGIGAVFLGFLGAA. Naturally elicited antibodies bound peptides with substitutions to negatively charged amino acids at residue positions 517–520 substantially better than the most common sequence, despite these substitutions rarely appearing in HIV-1; by contrast, vaccine-elicited antibodies were less tolerant of sequence variation, with no substitution of residues 512–516 showing increased binding. Molecular dynamics analysis and cryo-EM structural analysis of the naturally elicited ACS202 antibody in complex with the HIV-1 Env trimer with an alanine 517 to glutamine substitution suggested enhanced binding to result from electrostatic interactions with positively charged antibody residues. Overall, vaccine-elicited antibodies appeared to be more fully optimized to bind the most common fusion peptide sequence, perhaps reflecting the immunization with fusion peptide of the vaccine-elicited antibodies.

Discovery of a novel highly specific, fully human PSCA antibody and its application as an antibody-drug conjugate in prostate cancer

Chu, Xiaojie; Shin, Seungmin; Baek, Du-San; Zhang, Liyong; Conard, Alex; Shi, Megan; Kim, Ye-Jin; Adams, Cynthia; Hines, Maggie; Liu, Xianglei; Chen, Chuan; Sun, Zehua; Jelev, Dontcho V.; Mellors, John W.; Dimitrov, Dimiter S.; Li, Wei
mAbs.
Aug 2024
10.1080/19420862.2024.2387240
Prostate stem cell antigen (PSCA) is expressed in all stages of prostate cancer, including in advanced androgen-independent tumors and bone metastasis. PSCA may associate with prostate carcinogenesis and lineage plasticity in prostate cancer. PSCA is also a promising theranostic marker for a variety of other solid tumors, including pancreatic adenocarcinoma and renal cell carcinoma. Here, we identified a novel fully human PSCA antibody using phage display methodology. The structure-based affinity maturation yielded a high-affinity binder, F12, which is highly specific and does not bind to 6,000 human membrane proteins based on a membrane proteome array assay. F12 targets PSCA amino acids 63–69 as tested by the peptide scanning microarray, and it cross-reacts with the murine PSCA. IgG1 F12 efficiently internalizes into PSCA-expressing tumor cells. The antimitotic reagent monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE)-conjugated IgG1 F12 (ADC, F12-MMAE) exhibits dose-dependent efficacy and specificity in a human prostate cancer PC-3-PSCA xenograft NSG mouse model. This is a first reported ADC based on a fully human PSCA antibody and MMAE that is characterized in a xenograft murine model, which warrants further optimizations and investigations in additional preclinical tumor models, including prostate and other solid tumors.

Antigen-Heterologous Vaccination Regimen Triggers Alternate Antibody Targeting in SARS-CoV-2-DNA-Vaccinated Mice

Frische, Anders; Krogfelt, Karen Angeliki; Fomsgaard, Anders; Lassaunière, Ria
Vaccines.
Feb 2024
10.3390/vaccines12030218
An in-depth analysis of antibody epitopes following vaccination with different regimens provides important insight for developing future vaccine strategies. B-cell epitopes conserved across virus variants may be ideal targets for vaccine-induced antibodies and therapeutic drugs. However, challenges lie in identifying these key antigenic regions, and directing the immune system to target them. We previously evaluated the immunogenicity of two candidate DNA vaccines encoding the unmodified spike protein of either the SARS-CoV-2 Index strain or the Beta variant of concern (VOC). As a follow-on study, we characterized here the antibody binding profiles of three groups of mice immunized with either the DNA vaccine encoding the SARS-CoV-2 Index strain spike protein only, the Beta VOC spike protein only, or a combination of both as an antigen-heterologous prime-boost regimen. The latter induced an antibody response targeting overlapping regions that were observed for the individual vaccines but with additional high levels of antibody directed against epitopes in the SD2 region and the HR2 region. These heterologous-vaccinated animals displayed improved neutralization breadth. We believe that a broad-focused vaccine regimen increases neutralization breadth, and that the in-depth analysis of B-cell epitope targeting used in this study can be applied in future vaccine research.

ASFV epitope mapping by high density peptides microarrays

Desmet, Cloé; Coelho-Cruz, Bruna; Mehn, Dora; Colpo, Pascal; Ruiz-Moreno, Ana
Virus Research.
Jan 2024
10.1016/j.virusres.2023.199287
African swine fever (ASF) is an acute, highly contagious and deadly infectious disease. It is a threat to animal health with major potential economic and societal impact. Despite decades of ASF vaccine research, still some gaps in knowledge are hindering the development of a functional vaccine. Worth mentioning are gaps in understanding the mechanism of ASF infection and immunity, as well as the fact that – in case of this disease – virus proteins, so-called protective antigens, responsible for inducing protective immune responses in pigs are not identified yet. In this paper we elaborate on a methodology to identify protective antigens based on epitope mapping by microarray technology. High density peptide microarrays, combined with fluorescence scanning, have been used to analyze the interaction of peptide sequences of African swine fever virus (ASFV) proteins with antibodies present in inactivated serum from infected and healthy animals. The study evidenced ASFV proteins already under the radar for vaccine development, such as p54, and identified specific sequences in those proteins that may become the focus for future vaccine candidates. Such methodology is amenable to automation and high-throughput and may help developing better targeting for next generation vaccines.

Human Antibody Domains and Fragments Targeting Neutrophil Elastase as Candidate Therapeutics for Cancer and Inflammation-Related Diseases

Chu, Xiaojie; Sun, Zehua; Baek, Du-San; Li, Wei; Mellors, John W.; Shapiro, Steven D.; Dimitrov, Dimiter S.
Int J Mol Sci.
Oct 2021
10.3390/ijms222011136
Neutrophil elastase (NE) is a serine protease released during neutrophil maturation. High levels of NE are related to lung tissue damage and poor prognosis in cancer; thus, NE is a potential target for therapeutic immunotherapy for multiple lung diseases and cancers. Here, we isolate and characterize two high-affinity, specific, and noncompetitive anti-NE antibodies Fab 1C10 and VH 1D1.43 from two large phage-displayed human Fab and VH libraries. After fusion with human IgG1 Fc, both of them (VH-Fc 1D1.43 and IgG1 1C10) inhibit NE enzymatic activity with VH-Fc 1D1.43 showing comparable inhibitory effects to that of the small molecule NE inhibitor SPCK and IgG1 1C10 exhibiting even higher (2.6-fold) activity than SPCK. Their epitopes, as mapped by peptide arrays combined with structural modeling, indicate different mechanisms for blocking NE activity. Both VH-Fc and IgG1 antibodies block NE uptake by cancer cells and fibroblast differentiation. VH-Fc 1D1.43 and IgG1 1C10 are promising for the antibody-based immunotherapy of cancer and inflammatory diseases.

HSP70iQ435A to subdue autoimmunity and support anti-tumor responses

Jaishankar, Dinesh; Cosgrove, Cormac; Ramesh, Prathyaya; Mahon, James; Shivde, Rohan; Dellacecca, Emilia R.; Yang, Shiayin F.; Mosenson, Jeffrey; Guevara-Patiño, José A.; Le Poole, I. Caroline
Cell Stress and Chaperones.
Sep 2021
10.1007/s12192-021-01229-x
Developing immunosuppressive therapies for autoimmune diseases comes with a caveat that immunosuppression may promote the risk of developing other conditions or diseases. We have previously shown that biolistic delivery of an expression construct encoding inducible HSP70 (HSP70i) with one amino acid modification in the dendritic cell (DC) activating moiety 435–445 (HSP70iQ435A) to mouse skin resulted in significant immunosuppressive activity of autoimmune vitiligo, associated with fewer tissue infiltrating T cells. To prepare HSP70iQ435A as a potential therapeutic for autoimmune vitiligo, in this study we evaluated whether and how biolistic delivery of HSP70iQ435A in mice affects anti-tumor responses. We found that HSP70iQ435A in fact supports anti-tumor responses in melanoma-challenged C57BL/6 mice. Biolistic delivery of the HSP70iQ435A-encoding construct to mice elicited significant anti-HSP70 titers, and anti-HSP70 IgG and IgM antibodies recognize surface-expressed and cytoplasmic HSP70i in human and mouse melanoma cells. A peptide scan revealed that the anti-HSP70 antibodies recognize a specific C-terminal motif within the HSP70i protein. The antibodies elicited surface CD107A expression among mouse NK cells, representative of antibody-mediated cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC), supporting the concept, that HSP70iQ435A-encoding DNA elicits a humoral response to the stress protein expressed selectively on the surface of melanoma cells. Thus, besides limiting autoimmunity and inflammation, HSP70iQ435A elicits humoral responses that limit tumor growth and may be used in conjunction with immune checkpoint inhibitors to not only control tumor but to also limit adverse events following tumor immunotherapy.

Location and expression kinetics of Tc24 in different life stages of Trypanosoma cruzi

Versteeg, Leroy; Adhikari, Rakesh; Poveda, Cristina; Villar-Mondragon, Maria Jose; Jones, Kathryn M.; Hotez, Peter J.; Bottazzi, Maria Elena; Tijhaar, Edwin; Pollet, Jeroen
PLoS Negl Trop Dis.
Sep 2021
10.1371/journal.pntd.0009689
Tc24-C4, a modified recombinant flagellar calcium-binding protein of Trypanosoma cruzi, is under development as a therapeutic subunit vaccine candidate to prevent or delay progression of chronic Chagasic cardiomyopathy. When combined with Toll-like receptor agonists, Tc24-C4 immunization reduces parasitemia, parasites in cardiac tissue, and cardiac fibrosis and inflammation in animal models. To support further research on the vaccine candidate and its mechanism of action, murine monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against Tc24-C4 were generated. Here, we report new findings made with mAb Tc24-C4/884 that detects Tc24-WT and Tc24-C4, as well as native Tc24 in T. cruzi on ELISA, western blots, and different imaging techniques. Surprisingly, detection of Tc24 by Tc24-C/884 in fixed T. cruzi trypomastigotes required permeabilization of the parasite, revealing that Tc24 is not exposed on the surface of T. cruzi, making a direct role of antibodies in the induced protection after Tc24-C4 immunization less likely. We further observed that after immunostaining T. cruzi–infected cells with mAb Tc24-C4/884, the expression of Tc24 decreases significantly when T. cruzi trypomastigotes enter host cells and transform into amastigotes. However, Tc24 is then upregulated in association with parasite flagellar growth linked to re-transformation into the trypomastigote form, prior to host cellular escape. These observations are discussed in the context of potential mechanisms of vaccine immunity.

Landscape and selection of vaccine epitopes in SARS-CoV-2

Smith, Christof C.; Olsen, Kelly S.; Gentry, Kaylee M.; Sambade, Maria; Beck, Wolfgang; Garness, Jason; Entwistle, Sarah; Willis, Caryn; Vensko, Steven; Woods, Allison; Fini, Misha; Carpenter, Brandon; Routh, Eric; Kodysh, Julia; O’Donnell, Timothy; Haber, Carsten; Heiss, Kirsten; Stadler, Volker; Garrison, Erik; Sandor, Adam M.; Ting, Jenny P. Y.; Weiss, Jared; Krajewski, Krzysztof; Grant, Oliver C.; Woods, Robert J.; Heise, Mark; Vincent, Benjamin G.; Rubinsteyn, Alex
Genome Medicine.
Jun 2021
10.1186/s13073-021-00910-1
Early in the pandemic, we designed a SARS-CoV-2 peptide vaccine containing epitope regions optimized for concurrent B cell, CD4+ T cell, and CD8+ T cell stimulation. The rationale for this design was to drive both humoral and cellular immunity with high specificity while avoiding undesired effects such as antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE).

Non-invasive immunoPET imaging of PD-L1 using anti-PD-L1-B11 in breast cancer and melanoma tumor model

Bansal, Aditya; Pandey, Mukesh K.; Barham, Whitney; Liu, Xin; Harrington, Susan M.; Lucien, Fabrice; Dong, Haidong; Park, Sean S.; DeGrado, Timothy R.
Nuclear Medicine and Biology.
May 2021
10.1016/j.nucmedbio.2021.05.004
Introduction Immunotherapy targeting PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) is efficacious in various solid and hematologic malignancies. However, the response rate to PD-1/PD-L1 therapy is only 15–35%. To obtain optimal clinical response to ICI therapies, a reliable assessment of tumor PD-L1 expression is needed to select appropriate patients, and a non-invasive imaging-based assessment of PD-L1 expression is critically needed. Although radiolabeled PET probes based on PD-L1 targeted therapeutic antibodies (e.g. atezolizumab) have shown encouraging results, there is concern that residual therapeutic antibody may compete for binding with the radiotracer thereby compromising imaging studies that follow treatment. Methods and results In this study, we used novel anti-PD-L1-B11 clone antibody known to bind to a different epitope of PD-L1 than the therapeutic antibodies to avoid potential saturation effects. The anti-PD-L1-B11 clone was radiolabeled with zirconium-89 and evaluated to detect PD-L1 expression in various in vitro and in vivo cancer model systems in comparison with [89Zr]Zr-DFO-NCS-atezolizumab. In vitro binding parameters of anti-PD-L1-B11 were like those of atezolizumab. [89Zr]Zr-DFO-NCS-anti-PD-L1-B11 clone showed favorable properties to [89Zr]Zr-DFO-NCS-atezolizumab in an in vivo breast cancer tumor model system with higher uptake in PD-L1 expressing tumors. Conclusion Our data demonstrates that [89Zr]Zr-DFO-NCS-anti-PD-L1-B11 exhibits excellent imaging properties for the assessment PD-L1 expression. The independent binding site of anti-PD-L1-B11 relative to therapeutic anti-PD-L1 antibodies may be advantageous for anti-PD-L1 therapy monitoring.

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