Peptide Mimotope Candidates for Otitis Media Vaccine

This technology describes peptide mimotopes of lipooligosaccharides (LOS) from nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) and Moraxella catarrhalis that are suitable for developing novel vaccines against the respective pathogens, for which there are currently no licensed vaccines. The mimotopes not only immunologically mimic LOSs from NTHi and M. catarrhalis but will also bind to antibodies specific for the respective LOS. NTHi and M. catarrhalis are common pathogens that cause otitis media in children and lower respiratory tract infections in adults. The effectiveness of a vaccine could be increased by substitution of a LOS epitope with a peptide mimic. Preliminary experiments have shown that some of the mimic peptides conjugated to a carrier were as effective as their respective LOS-based vaccine in stimulating a humoral immune response in rabbits. A single consensus amino acid sequence was identified for M. catarrhalis, while four such sequences were identified for NTHi. Thus, the identified peptides are promising candidates for developing novel vaccines for NTHi or M. catarrhalis.