Abstract: Adjuvant compounds are described, as well as their conjugates comprising peptide antigens or other immunomodulatory moieties. Also described are methods of modulating immune responses in a subject in need thereof, as well as methods of treating cancer, viral or bacterial infections comprising administering the adjuvant compounds or the conjugates to a subject in need thereof.

Abstract: Adjuvant compounds are described, as well as their conjugates comprising peptide antigens or other immunomodulatory moieties. Also described are methods of modulating immune responses in a subject in need thereof, as well as methods of treating cancer, viral or bacterial infections comprising administering the adjuvant compounds or the conjugates to a subject in need thereof.

Abstract: We systematically investigated proteasome-mediated generation of fourteen different well-defined CTL epitopes. Synthetic peptides (26 residues) containing known CTL-epitopes flanked by their natural amino acids have been used as substrates for the 20S proteasome in vitro. After several time intervals, peptide digests were analyzed by electrospray mass spectrometry to determine the major fragments produced by the proteasome. In 12 out of 14 peptide digests, the correct C-terminal residue of the CTL-epitope was generated by proteasomal cleavage. The N-terminal residue of the epitope was generally not exactly defined by the proteasome. In most cases, fragments with the correct C-terminal residue were elongated several amino acids at the N-terminus. For two CTL-epitopes we found that their longer precursor peptides, as generated by the proteasome, correlated with efficient TAP translocation.