Synthetic vaccines targeting Mincle through conjugation of trehalose dibehenate

The covalent fusion of immunostimulatory adjuvants to immunogenic antigens is a promising strategy for the development of effective synthetic vaccines for infectious diseases. Herein, we describe the conjugation of a mycobacterial peptide antigen from the 6 kDa early secretory antigenic target (ESAT6) to a suitably functionalised trehalose dibehenate (TDB), a potent glycolipid adjuvant targeting macrophage inducible C-type lectin (Mincle).