CsgA-DERIVED NANOSTRUCTURES AND USES THEREOF FOR ANTIGEN DELIVERY

Abstract

Purified antigens are usually weakly immunogenic and require the addition of immunostimulatory agents and/or delivery systems to generate robust antigen-specific responses. The present application relates to self-assembling polypeptides that may be conjugated to immunogens and have the ability to self-assemble into immunogen-displaying nanofilaments that activate the humoral and cellular immune responses. The self-assembling polypeptide comprises an amino acid sequence having at least 60% identity with the sequence of the R4 and R5 domains from a Curli-specific gene A (CsgA) protein. The present application also relates to nucleic acids encoding the self-assembling polypeptide/immunogen conjugates, to compositions and vaccines comprising the self-assembling polypeptide/immunogen conjugates or nucleic acids, as well as to methods for inducing an immune response against an immunogen and/or for preventing and/or treating a microbial infection, cancer or any pathological conditions in which vaccination may be useful such as autoimmune diseases and allergies, in a subject.

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