Modified antibodies trigger immune response, point to novel vaccine design strategies

In an approach with the potential to aid therapeutic vaccine development, Whitehead Institute scientists have shown that enzymatically modified antibodies can be used to generate highly targeted, potent responses from cells of the immune system. The approach, referred to as “sortagging,” relies on the bacterial enzyme sortase A to modify antibodies to carry various payloads, such as peptides, lipids, fluorophores, and proteins. In this case, the scientists, whose findings have been reported online  in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), attached a variety of small antigens to an antibody directed at the surface of key immune cells. Through sortagging, the scientists were quickly able to prepare various antibody-antigen fusions and to deliver the antigens to their intended targets and track them as the immune cells mounted their intricate responses. “Sortagging is remarkably specific and efficient,” says Lee Kim Swee, first author of the PNAS paper and a postdoctoral researcher...