The Integrity of α-β-α Sandwich Conformation Is Essential for a Novel Adjuvant TFPR1 to Maintain Its Adjuvanticity

TFPR1 is a novel peptide vaccine adjuvant we recently discovered. To define the structural basis and optimize its application as an adjuvant, we designed three different truncated fragments that have removed dominant B epitopes on TFPR1, and evaluated their capacity to activate bone marrow-derived dendritic cells and their adjuvanticity. Results demonstrated that the integrity of an α-β-α sandwich conformation is essential for TFPR1 to maintain its immunologic activity and adjuvanticity. We obtained a functional truncated fragment TFPR-ta ranging from 40–168 aa of triflin that has similar adjuvanticity as TFPR1 but with 2-log fold lower immunogenicity. These results demonstrated a novel approach to evaluate and improve the activity of protein-based vaccine adjuvant.