Peptide Based Vaccine Strategies

Synthetic peptides are easy tool to investigate binding capacities, proteolytic activities and immunogenicity properties of proteins. They enable the development of vaccine candidates that can create a specific protective immune response by stimulating both cellular and humoral immunity with the B and T cell epitopes determined based on the nucleotide/amino acid sequence data of the pathogens. Although they are safe, biocompatible, and cost-effective, they have low immunogenicity capacities and are susceptible to enzymatic degradation. Effective and stable vaccines can be developed by increasing the immunogenicity capacities of synthetic peptides with a multiepitope approach and an appropriate adjuvant/carrier system.