Patent ID: 8398992
Filing Date: 2013-03-19
Classification: A61K,A61P,C12N,G01N,Y02A

Abstract:
1. A method of modulating the immune response to one or more infectious agents in a subject in need thereof comprising administering to the subject a plurality of compositions, each composition being administered to a different site of the subject wherein each composition comprises at least one purified antigenic molecule, wherein at least one purified antigenic molecule in each composition comprises one or more epitopes of the same infectious agent or a strain thereof, and wherein the one or more molecules of each composition comprise in aggregate a set of epitopes distinct from that of any other composition so administered, wherein (a) each site is, or substantially drains to, an anatomically distinct body part selected from the group consisting of a lymph node, a group of lymph nodes, a nonencapsulated cluster of lymphoid tissue, and the spleen (b) the distance between each pair of sites is greater than the distance between any two anatomically distinct lymph nodes or groups of lymph nodes nearest each site and (c) wherein the distinct epitopes between the compositions differ from each other by an epitopic variance defined as the sum of the number of non-conservative amino acid changes and one half of the number of conservative amino acid changes divided by the total number of amino acids in the epitope, and wherein the epitopic variance between the distinct epitopes between the compositions is between 0.05-0.5, wherein said infectious agent causes the infectious disease in amounts effective to modulate said immune response.