Synthesis of Tn/T Antigen MUC1 Glycopeptide BSA Conjugates and Their Evaluation as Vaccines

The tumor-associated mucin MUC1 over-expressed in most epithelial tumor tissues is considered a promising target for immunotherapy. The extracellular part of MUC1 contains a domain of numerous tandem repeats of the amino acid sequence HGVTSAPDTRPAPGSTAPPA, including five potential O-glycosylation sites. In this study, T9 and S15 have been chosen as the positions of glycosylation. The glycopeptides N-terminally equipped with a triethylene glycol spacer were synthesized by microwave-assisted Fmoc solid-phase peptide synthesis. After detachment from the resin and deprotection, the MUC1 glycopeptides were conjugated to bovine serum albumin (BSA). To evaluate the immunological properties, balb/c mice were immunized with these BSA vaccines.