Human mucin1 is a large glycoprotein, which over-express in a number of cancers and is broadly used as tumor associated antigen in tumor immunotherapy. The protein transduction domain (PTD) of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transacting transcriptional activator (TAT) was proved to be a useful tool for protein transduction into mammalian cells. The variable number of tandem repeat (VNTR) or tandem repeat (TR) of mucin1 was linked with a sequence derived from HIV TAT PTD and was expressed in bacteria. The soluble fusion protein was characterized for its transduction efficiency and sub-cellular distribution in HEK 293 cells. It was found that the fusion protein might be led into cells and would be used as a vaccine candidate in immunotherapy of mucin1 positive cancers....[ Read more ]

Human mucin1 is a large glycoprotein, which over-express in a number of cancers and is broadly used as tumor associated antigen in tumor immunotherapy. The protein transduction domain (PTD) of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transacting transcriptional activator (TAT) was proved to be a useful tool for protein transduction into mammalian cells. The variable number of tandem repeat (VNTR) or tandem repeat (TR) of mucin1 was linked with a sequence derived from HIV TAT PTD and was expressed in bacteria. The soluble fusion protein was characterized for its transduction efficiency and sub-cellular distribution in HEK 293 cells. It was found that the fusion protein might be led into cells and would be used as a vaccine candidate in immunotherapy of mucin1 positive cancers.

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is a serious respiratory syndrome that has been reported to spread in parts of Asia and Canada. A novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV, was the causative agent of SARS. Although many works focus on elucidating the humoral immune response to SARS-CoV, little has been done on T cell-mediated response to SARS-CoV. The aim of this study was to predict the candidates of T cell epitopes, measure the binding affinity of the predicted epitopes to HLA-A*0201 molecules. The immunogenecity of these epitopes were also evaluated by IFN-γ ELISPOT (enzyme-linked immunospot) assay by using healthy donor T cells. One epitope candidate derived form spike protein of SARS-CoV has high binding affinity with HLA-A*0201. The peptide could also activate healthy donor T cells and may be a T cell epitope of SARS-CoV.