Autoantibodies induced by chimeric cytokine-HIV envelope glycoprotein immunogens

Interleukin-21 administration leads to enhanced antigen-specific T cell responses and natural killer cells in HIV-1 vaccinated mice

Interleukin-21 (IL-21), which belongs to IL-2 γ chain receptor cytokine family, is as an important regulator of immune responses. In this study, we developed a novel strategy for immunizing mice with a DNA/vaccinia/protein vaccine in the presence or absence of mouse IL-21 (mIL-21) to evaluate whether mIL-21 could enhance immune responses. Our results demonstrated that co-immunization with mIL-21 did not increase significantly the capacity of vaccine induced antibodies to bind to HIV-1 GP140. An effect of mIL-21 in adjusting the efficacy of HIV-1 vaccine through enhancing Th1 type immune response was however observed. The frequencies of HIV-1-specific cytokine-producing CD4+ T and CD4+ TEM cells, especially multifunctional T cell responses, were significantly increased by co-administrating with mIL-21. A significant increase was also observed in the frequency of NK cells in mIL-21 adjuvant groups. Taken together, combination of mIL-21 with HIV-1 vaccines led to distinct enhancement of NK cells and T cell immune responses associated with immune protection.

Immunosilencing a highly immunogenic protein trimerization domain

Many therapeutic proteins and protein subunit vaccines contain heterologous trimerization domains, such as the widely used GCN4-based isoleucine zipper (IZ) and the T4 bacteriophage fibritin foldon (Fd) trimerization domains. We found that these domains induced potent anti-IZ or anti-Fd antibody responses in animals when fused to an HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein (Env) immunogen. To dampen IZ-induced responses, we constructed an IZ domain containing four N-linked glycans (IZN4) to shield the underlying protein surface. When fused to two different vaccine antigens, HIV-1 Env and influenza hemagglutinin (HA), IZN4 strongly reduced the antibody responses against the IZ, but did not affect the antibody titers against Env or HA. Silencing of immunogenic multimerization domains with glycans might be relevant for therapeutic proteins and protein vaccines.

Enhanced immunogenicity of HIV-1 envelope gp140 proteins fused to APRIL

Current HIV-1 vaccines based on the HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein spike (Env), the only relevant target for broadly neutralizing antibodies, are unable to induce protective immunity. Env immunogenicity can be enhanced by fusion to costimulatory molecules involved in B cell activation, such as APRIL and CD40L. Here, we found that Env-APRIL signaled through the two receptors, BCMA and TACI. In rabbits, Env-APRIL induced significantly higher antibody responses against Env compared to unconjugated Env, while the antibody responses against the APRIL component were negligible. To extend this finding, we tested Env-APRIL in mice and found minimal antibody responses against APRIL. Furthermore, Env-CD40L did not induce significant anti-CD40L responses. Thus, in contrast to the 4-helix cytokines IL-21 and GM-CSF, the TNF-superfamily members CD40L and APRIL induced negligible autoantibodies. This study confirms and extends previous work and shows that fusion of Env-based immunogens to APRIL can improve Env immunogenicity and might help in designing HIV vaccines that induce protective humoral immunity.