Cellular immunity inducing vaccine

Abstract

A novel vaccine that can induce sufficiently high cell-mediated immunity is disclosed. The vaccine of the present invention contains, as an effective component, a polypeptide comprising a tandem repeat structure in which an MHC class I epitope region derived from an antigen protein and a spacer sequence are linked to each other alternately and repeatedly at least three times, or a recombinant vector which comprises a polynucleotide encoding said polypeptide and is capable of expressing said polypeptide in vivo. The spacer sequence is, for example, a sequence generated as an amino acid sequence inevitably encoded by a single base sequence which is designed such that the MHC class I epitope region derived from the antigen protein, an MHC class II epitope region derived from the antigen protein, and at least one higher-order-structure-stabilizing region are encoded by different reading frames in said single base sequence.

1 . A composition comprising a pharmaceutically acceptable additive(s) and, as an effective component, a recombinant vector comprising a polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide having an amino acid sequence selected from the amino acid sequences shown in SEQ ID NOs:54-63 and is capable of expressing said polypeptide in vivo. 
     
     
         2 . The composition of  claim 1 , further comprising an adjuvant that activates the Toll-like receptor pathway. 
     
     
         3 . The composition of  claim 1 , wherein said recombinant vector comprises a polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide having an amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 54 and is capable of expressing said polypeptide in vivo. 
     
     
         4 . The composition of  claim 1 , wherein said recombinant vector comprises a polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide having an amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 55 and is capable of expressing said polypeptide in vivo. 
     
     
         5 . The composition of  claim 1 , wherein said recombinant vector comprises a polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide having an amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 56 and is capable of expressing said polypeptide in vivo. 
     
     
         6 . The composition of  claim 1 , wherein said recombinant vector comprises a polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide having an amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 57 and is capable of expressing said polypeptide in vivo. 
     
     
         7 . The composition of  claim 1 , wherein said recombinant vector comprises a polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide having an amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 58 and is capable of expressing said polypeptide in vivo. 
     
     
         8 . The composition of  claim 1 , wherein said recombinant vector comprises a polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide having an amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 63 and is capable of expressing said polypeptide in vivo.