Enhanced potency of replicon vaccine using one vector to simultaneously co-express antigen and interleukin-4 molecular adjuvant

Production and Application of Multicistronic Constructs for Various Human Disease Therapies

The development of multicistronic vectors has opened up new opportunities to address the fundamental issues of molecular and cellular biology related to the need for the simultaneous delivery and joint expression of several genes. To date, the examples of the successful use of multicistronic vectors have been described for the development of new methods of treatment of various human diseases, including cardiovascular, oncological, metabolic, autoimmune, and neurodegenerative disorders. The safety and effectiveness of the joint delivery of therapeutic genes in multicistronic vectors based on the internal ribosome entry site (IRES) and self-cleaving 2A peptides have been shown in both in vitro and in vivo experiments as well as in clinical trials. Co-expression of several genes in one vector has also been used to create animal models of various inherited diseases which are caused by mutations in several genes. Multicistronic vectors provide expression of all mutant genes, which allows the most complete mimicking disease pathogenesis. This review comprehensively discusses multicistronic vectors based on IRES nucleotide sequence and self-cleaving 2A peptides, including its features and possible application for the treatment and modeling of various human diseases.

Enhanced effects of DNA vaccine against botulinum neurotoxin serotype A by targeting antigen to dendritic cells

As dendritic cells (DCs) play a critical role in priming antigen-specific immune responses, the efficacy of DNA vaccines may be enhanced by targeting the encoded antigen proteins to DCs. In this study, we constructed a DC-targeted DNA vaccine encoding the Hc domain of botulinum neurotoxin serotype A (AHc) fused with scDEC, a single-chain Fv antibody (scFv) specific for the DC-restricted antigen-uptake receptor DEC205. Intramuscular injections of mice with the DC-targeted DNA vaccine (pVAX1-scDEC-AHc) stimulated more DCs to mature than the non-targeted DNA vaccine (pVAX1-SAHc) in the splenocytes. The DC-targeted DNA vaccine could induce more DCs maturation at the site of inoculation. The DC-targeted DNA vaccine induced stronger AHc-specific humoral immune responses, lymphocyte proliferative responses and protective potency against BoNT/A in mice than did pVAX1-SAHc. Moreover, the DC-targeting DNA vaccine provided effective protection after only two inoculations. In summary, these results showed that the DC-targeted fusion DNA vaccine could generate strong immunity, indicating that maturation of DCs induced by pVAX1-scDEC-AHc may be helpful for priming and boosting immune responses. Thus, we propose that the strategy of targeting antigen to DCs in vivo via DEC205 can enhance effectively the potency of DNA vaccines against BoNTs or other pathogens in an animal model.

Combinations of various CpG motifs cloned into plasmid backbone modulate and enhance protective immunity of viral replicon DNA anthrax vaccines

DNA vaccines are generally weak stimulators of the immune system. Fortunately, their efficacy can be improved using a viral replicon vector or by the addition of immunostimulatory CpG motifs, although the design of these engineered DNA vectors requires optimization. Our results clearly suggest that multiple copies of three types of CpG motifs or combinations of various types of CpG motifs cloned into a viral replicon vector backbone with strong immunostimulatory activities on human PBMC are efficient adjuvants for these DNA vaccines to modulate and enhance protective immunity against anthrax, although modifications with these different CpG forms in vivo elicited inconsistent immune response profiles. Modification with more copies of CpG motifs elicited more potent adjuvant effects leading to the generation of enhanced immunity, which indicated a CpG motif dose-dependent enhancement of antigen-specific immune responses. Notably, the enhanced and/or synchronous adjuvant effects were observed in modification with combinations of two different types of CpG motifs, which provides not only a contribution to the knowledge base on the adjuvant activities of CpG motifs combinations but also implications for the rational design of optimal DNA vaccines with combinations of CpG motifs as "built-in" adjuvants. We describe an efficient strategy to design and optimize DNA vaccines by the addition of combined immunostimulatory CpG motifs in a viral replicon DNA plasmid to produce strong immune responses, which indicates that the CpG-modified viral replicon DNA plasmid may be desirable for use as vector of DNA vaccines.