Peptide-glycodendrimers As Potential Vaccines for Olive Pollen Allergy

Olive pollen is one of the most important causes of respiratory allergy, being Ole e 1 the most clinically relevant sensitizing allergen. Peptide-based vaccines represent promising therapeutic approaches but the use of adjuvants is required to strengthen the weak immunogenicity of small peptides. We propose the use of dendrimeric scaffolds conjugated to the T cell immunodominant epitope of Ole e 1 (OE109–130) for the development of novel vaccines against olive pollen allergy. Four dendrimeric scaffolds containing an ester/ether with nine mannoses, an ester succinimidyl linker with nine N-acetyl-glucosamine or nine ethylene glycol conjugated to OE109-130 peptide were designed, and their cytotoxicity, internalization pattern and immunomodulatory properties were analyzed in vitro. None of the dendrimers exhibited cytotoxicity in humanized rat basophil (RBL-2H3), human bronchial epithelial Calu-3 and human mast LAD2 cell lines. Confocal images indicated that mannosylated glycodendropeptides exhibited lower co...