1. Preclinical evaluation of cellular immune responses elicited by a polyvalent DNA prime/protein boost HIV-1 vaccine
- Author
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Te-hui W. Chou, Lauren Hudacik, Lindsey Hocker, Leilei He, Shixia Wang, Ranajit Pal, Anthony D. Cristillo, Tami Unangst, Swati Joshi, Balachandran C. Nair, Vaniambadi S. Kalyanaraman, Tim Keen, Phillip D. Markham, Siyuan Shen, Stephen Whitney, Michael S. Caskey, and Shan Lu
- Subjects
CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes ,Cellular immunity ,Immunization, Secondary ,Gene Products, gag ,HIV Infections ,Biology ,CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes ,HIV Antibodies ,DNA vaccination ,03 medical and health sciences ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Mice ,0302 clinical medicine ,Immune system ,Virology ,Homologous chromosome ,Vaccines, DNA ,Animals ,Humans ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Immunization Schedule ,030304 developmental biology ,AIDS Vaccines ,0303 health sciences ,Immunity, Cellular ,Mice, Inbred BALB C ,Gene Products, env ,Th1 Cells ,Macaca mulatta ,3. Good health ,Vaccination ,CTL ,chemistry ,Immunology ,HIV-1 ,Cytokines ,Immunization ,CD8 ,DNA - Abstract
While DNA vaccines have been shown to prime cellular immune responses, levels are often low in nonhuman primates or humans. Hence, efforts have been directed toward boosting responses by combining DNA with different vaccination modalities. To this end, a polyvalent DNA prime/protein boost vaccine, consisting of codon optimized HIV-1 env (A, B, C, E) and gag (C) and homologous gp120 proteins in QS-21, was evaluated in rhesus macaques and BALB/c mice. Humoral and cellular responses, detected following DNA immunization, were increased following protein boost in macaques and mice. In dissecting cellular immune responses in mice, protein-enhanced responses were found to be mediated by CD4+ and CD8+ T cells with a Th1 cytokine bias. Our study reveals that, in addition to augmenting humoral responses, protein boosting of DNA-primed animals augments cellular immune responses mediated by CD8+ CTL, CD4+ T-helper cells and Th1 cytokines; thus, offering much promise in controlling HIV-1 in vaccinees.
- Published
- 2006
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