Patent ID: 9533036
Date: 2017-01-03
CPC Classifications: A61K,A61P,C07K,C12N

Claim:
1. A method of generating an immune response in an individual against one or more influenza antigens resulting from an infectious influenza virus, by administering to the individual an effective amount of an expression vector, said vector comprising a transcription unit encoding a secretable fusion protein, comprising: said secretable fusion protein comprising a first of two or more influenza antigen fragments each from an extracellular region of the influenza virus and each of said influenza antigen fragments comprising at least two epitopes and linking the influenza antigen fragments to the amino terminus of the extracellular domain of a CD40 ligand, for generating both a cellular and antibody immune response, a first one of said epitopes from the extracellular region of the one or more influenza antigens that is recognized and bound by Class II MHC for eliciting antigen specific antibodies, and a second one of said epitopes from the extracellular region of the one or more influenza antigens that is recognized and bound by Class I MHC for inducing antigen specific CD8 said fusion protein further comprising the second one of said influenza antigen fragments also comprising a said first epitope and a said second epitope, each of said epitopes in the second influenza antigen fragment having a distinct amino acid sequence from the amino acid sequence epitopes in the first influenza antigen fragment, said expression vector, upon administration, to generate said antibodies and said CD8 a subsequent step of administering an effective amount of said fusion protein comprising said first and second influenza antigen fragments and CD40 ligand, as a boost.