CD40 ligand fusion protein vaccine

A vaccine composition for increasing the immune responsiveness in an individual against one or more foreign antigens on an infectious agent, comprising:

• an expression vector comprising a transcription unit encoding a secretable fusion protein comprising two or more foreign antigen fragments each from the extracellular domain of the one or more foreign antigens on the infectious agent, and an extracellular domain of a CD40L ligand, wherein the two or more foreign antigen fragments are linked to an amino terminus of the extracellular domain of the CD40L ligand,
• a first one of said foreign antigen fragments comprising a first epitope that contains a binding site that is recognized and bound by Class II MHC for eliciting foreign antigen specific antibodies, and further comprising a second epitope that contains a binding site that is recognized and bound by Class I MHC for eliciting foreign antigen specific CD8+ T cells, and
• a second one of said foreign antigen fragments comprising a first epitope and a second epitope, each of said first and second epitopes in the second foreign antigen fragment having a distinct amino acid sequence from each of the amino acid sequence epitopes in the first foreign antigen fragment, and said first and second epitopes of said second foreign antigen each having a binding site respectively recognized and bound by Class II MHC and Class I MHC.

A composition for generating an immune response in an individual against one or more influenza antigens on an infectious agent for limiting progression of the infectious agent for multiple strains of the influenza virus, comprising,

• an expression vector comprising a transcription unit encoding a secretable fusion protein comprising the extracellular domain of the CD40 ligand and an extracellular portion of the Matrix protein 2 influenza antigen SEQ ID NO 77, wherein said Matrix protein 2 is connected at the amino terminus of the CD40 ligand and functions to increase the immunogenicity of said Matrix protein 2 so as to increase both the level of Matrix protein 2 specific CD8+ effector T cells and neutralizing antibodies, against the infectious agent.