| abstract |
The invention provides chimeric nucleic acids encoding a chimeric polypeptide, constructs for expressing these polypeptides both in vitro and in vivo, isolated chimeric polypeptides, pharmaceutical compositions and methods of making and using these compositions. These compositions and methods are particularly useful for stimulating or enhancing the immunogenicity of a selected antigen or stimulating or enhancing a cellular immune response specific for that antigen. The nucleic acid of the invention comprises a first polypeptide domain comprising a carboxy terminal fragment of a heat shock protein (HSP), an Flt-3 ligand (FL), a cytoplasmic translocation domain of a Pseudomonas exotoxin A (ETA dII), or a granulocyte-macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) sequence, and a second polypeptide domain comprising an antigenic polypeptide. |