Pure VACCINE Solutions

Pure Vaccine Solutions, a division of Pure Protein, is specifically focused on using the power of our soluble HLA technology production to create tools specifically for vaccine development and validation.

Pure Vaccine Solutions Datasheet

The Role of HLAs in Vaccine Development, Cancer Research, and Pathogen Research

Class I and II polymorphisms pose a challenge to the vaccine architect: Given the vast number of diverse HLA molecules in the population, can one design a vaccine that will bind the various class I and II molecules to stimulate a protective immune response? Will a vaccine work in both the A*0201 and A*2404 individual, or do these individuals need separate vaccines? Pure Vaccine Solutions’ laboratory work has been focused on addressing such questions, and our products provide a unique tool to resolving such questions.

The primary goal of epitope discovery has been to identify peptide (tumor antigens) for use in the construction of vaccines that activate a clinically relevant cellular immune response against the tumor cells. The goal of vaccination in cancer immunotherapy is to elicit a cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) response and activate T helper responses to eliminate the tumor. Although many of the epitopes discovered by current methods are immunogenic, shown by studies that generate peptide-specific CTL in vitro, and in vivo, the application of vaccination protocols to cancer treatment is still at an early stage but holds all the promise to be highly successful in cancer prevention.

In contrast, pathogens employ different strategies. A common virus strategy is to reproduce within the cells of a host. Once inside a host cell, antibodies cannot reach the virus. The immune response therefore alerts CTLs to the presence of the virus, and the infected cells are killed by the CTLs so that the virus inside cannot reproduce and spread. Mobilizing the proper arm of the immune response allows the host to efficiently mark a pathogen for elimination. This is where the HLA class I and class II molecules respond to the presence of a particular type of pathogen. Once the immune response is alerted to the presence of a bacteria or virus, it will mobilize the appropriate immune effector agents.