Heterologous prime-boost immunization induces protection against dengue virus infection in cynomolgus macaques

IMPORTANCE

Currently licensed dengue vaccines do not induce long-term protection in children without previous exposure to dengue viruses in nature. These vaccines are based on selected attenuated strains of the four dengue serotypes and employed in combination for two or three consecutive doses. In our search for a better dengue vaccine candidate, live attenuated strains were followed by non-infectious virus-like particles or the plasmids that generate these particles upon injection into the body. This heterologous prime-boost immunization induced elevated levels of virus-specific antibodies and helped to prevent dengue virus infection in a high proportion of vaccinated macaques. In macaques that remained susceptible to dengue virus, distinct mechanisms were found to account for the immunization failures, providing a better understanding of vaccine actions. Additional studies in humans in the future may help to establish whether this combination approach represents a more effective means of preventing dengue by vaccination.

Blockade-of-Binding Activities toward Envelope-Associated, Type-Specific Epitopes as a Correlative Marker for Dengue Virus-Neutralizing Antibody

Humans infected with dengue virus (DENV) acquire long-term protection against the infecting serotype, whereas cross-protection against other serotypes is short-lived. Long-term protection induced by low levels of type-specific neutralizing antibodies can be assessed using the virus-neutralizing antibody test. However, this test is laborious and time-consuming. In this study, a blockade-of-binding enzyme-linked immunoassay was developed to assess antibody activity by using a set of neutralizing anti-E monoclonal antibodies and blood samples from dengue virus-infected or -immunized macaques. Diluted blood samples were incubated with plate-bound dengue virus particles before the addition of an enzyme-conjugated antibody specific to the epitope of interest. Based on blocking reference curves constructed using autologous purified antibodies, sample blocking activity was determined as the relative concentration of unconjugated antibody that resulted in the same percent signal reduction. In separate DENV-1-, -2-, -3-, and -4-related sets of samples, moderate to strong correlations of the blocking activity with neutralizing antibody titers were found with the four type-specific antibodies 1F4, 3H5, 8A1, and 5H2, respectively. Significant correlations were observed for single samples taken 1 month after infection as well as samples drawn before and at various time points after infection/immunization. Similar testing using a cross-reactive EDE-1 antibody revealed a moderate correlation between the blocking activity and the neutralizing antibody titer only for the DENV-2-related set. The potential usefulness of the blockade-of-binding activity as a correlative marker of neutralizing antibodies against dengue viruses needs to be validated in humans. IMPORTANCE This study describes a blockade-of-binding assay for the determination of antibodies that recognize a selected set of serotype-specific or group-reactive epitopes in the envelope of dengue virus. By employing blood samples collected from dengue virus-infected or -immunized macaques, moderate to strong correlations of the epitope-blocking activities with the virus-neutralizing antibody titers were observed with serotype-specific blocking activities for each of the four dengue serotypes. This simple, rapid, and less laborious method should be useful for the evaluation of antibody responses to dengue virus infection and may serve as, or be a component of, an in vitro correlate of protection against dengue in the future.

A group of infection-enhancing and focus size-reducing monoclonal antibodies recognized an 'a and c' strands epitope in the pr domain of Dengue Virus prM

Partial cleavage of a dengue virus envelope protein, prM, by furin results in a mixture of extracellular particles with variable levels of maturation and infectivity. Partially mature particles can infect leukocytes via interaction between the prM-anti-prM antibody complex with Fcγ receptors. Known prM epitopes involved in antibody-mediated infection are localized to the pr domain. In this study, a group of murine anti-prM monoclonal antibodies with strong infection-enhancing activity was found to reduce the focus size of subsets of multiple dengue serotypes that they could enhance. By employing sets of overlapping peptides, four antibodies recognizing 2-mercaptoethanol-insensitive epitopes were mapped to a common tetrapeptide located distantly in the b-c loop and furin binding site. Substitution mutations of each, or both, of the tetrapeptides in virus-like particles, however, failed to reduce binding. Further mapping experiments were performed using immature virus-like particles with abolished furin binding site to minimize the differential influence of various pr substitutions on pr-M cleavage. Reduction of antibody binding was detected when single alanine substitutions were introduced into the 'a' strand and 'c' strand of pr domain. These findings suggest that the pr 'a and c' strands region is the major binding site of these unusual focus size-reducing anti-prM antibodies.

A replication competent luciferase-secreting DENV2 reporter for sero-epidemiological surveillance of neutralizing and enhancing antibodies

Dengue virus (DENV) specific neutralizing and enhancing antibodies play crucial roles in dengue disease prevention and pathogenesis. DENV reporters are gaining popularity in the evaluation of these antibodies; their accessibility and acceptance may improve with more efficient production systems and indications of their antigenic equivalence to the wild-type virus. This study aimed to generate a replication competent luciferase-secreting DENV reporter (LucDENV2) and evaluate its feasibility in neutralizing and infection-enhancing antibody assays in comparison with wild-type DENV2, strain 16681, and a luciferase-secreting, single-round infectious DENV2 reporter (LucSIP). LucDENV2 replicated to similarly high levels as that of the parent 16681 virus in a commonly used mosquito cell line. LucDENV2 was neutralized in an antibody concentration-dependent manner by a monoclonal antibody specific to the flavivirus fusion loop and two antibodies specific to the E domain III, which closely resembled the neutralization patterns employing the LucSIP and wild-type DENV2. Parallel analysis of LucDENV2 and wild-type DENV2 revealed good agreement between the luciferase-based and focus-based neutralization and enhancement assays in a 96-well microplate format when employed against a set of clinical sera, suggesting comparable antigenic properties of LucDENV2 with those of the parent virus. The high-titer, replication competent, luciferase-secreting DENV reporter presented here should be a useful tool for fast and reliable quantitation of neutralizing and infection-enhancing antibodies in populations living in DENV-endemic areas.

Generation and characterization of luciferase-secreting, single-round infectious DENV-2 reporter for functional antibody assays

Flavivirus reporters provide a robust tool for viral pathogenesis studies, anti-viral drug screening, disease diagnosis and functional antibody assays. In this study, we generated a luciferase-secreting, single-round reporter virus by replacing the capsid coding region in a DENV-2 genome with the secretory form of Lucia luciferase gene to produce infectious viral particles in a stable capsid-expressing mosquito cell line. Replication of the reporter virus in trans-complementing mosquito cells was sustained for up to two weeks. There were strong correlations between the extracellular luciferase activity and infectious reporter virus inocula upon infection of mosquito and mammalian cell lines with graded quantities of the reporter virus. A set of anti-E and anti-prM monoclonal antibodies affected the infectivity of reporter virus with similar dose-effect relationships as the parent virus. This simplified version of DENV-2 reporter provides a rapid and reliable method for the detection of neutralizing and infection-enhancing antibodies against dengue virus.

The immunogenicity of tetravalent dengue DNA vaccine in mice pre-exposed to Japanese encephalitis or Dengue virus antigens

BACKGROUND

Asian countries are an endemic area for both dengue (DENV) and Japanese encephalitis viruses (JEV). While JEV vaccines have been used extensively in this region, DENV vaccines remains under development. Whether preexisting naturally acquired or vaccination-induced immunity against JEV may affect the immune response to dengue vaccine candidate is unclear. In this study we used mice previously immunized with JEV vaccines to evaluate the impact on dengue-specific neutralizing antibody responses to a tetravalent dengue DNA vaccine candidate (TDNA).

METHODS

A tetravalent cocktail of plasmids encoding pre-membrane and envelope proteins from each dengue serotype was administered into mice which had been previously primed with inactivated or live-attenuated JEV vaccines, or dengue serotype2 virus (DENV-2). Neutralizing antibody response was measured employing a plaque reduction neutralization test at two weeks after the priming and at four weeks after the second dose of the dengue tetravalent plasmids.

RESULTS

Inactivated or live-attenuated JEV vaccines, or DENV-2 induced low levels of neutralizing antibodies against the homologous viruses (JE and dengue virus, respectively). DENV-2 injection induced also low levels of cross-reactive antibodies against DENV-1, -3 and -4. JEV vaccines have no effect on the dengue-specific neutralizing antibody responses to the subsequent TDNA immunization. Pre-exposure to DENV-2 infection increased DENV-2 specific response neutralizing antibody to two doses of TDNA plasmids by six folds, but did not affect antibody response to other serotypes.

CONCLUSIONS

Priming with JEV vaccines did not impact on dengue virus-specific neutralizing antibody response to a dengue TDNA vaccine candidate in mice.

Strategies to improve the immunogenicity of prM+E dengue virus type-2 DNA vaccine

BACKGROUND

An important goal for dengue vaccines is to induce a high and durable level of neutralizing antibody.

OBJECTIVE

Three strategies were investigated for improving the immunogenicity of a prM+E dengue serotype 2 (DENV-2) DNA vaccine: 1) expression in two different plasmids; 2) adjustment of dose; and, 3) introduction of the E sequence of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) at the carboxy-terminal portion of DENV-2 E.

METHOD

Expression cassettes were designed to encode a full-length prM+E sequence of DENV-2 virus employing human-preferred codons (D2prMEopt), or a chimeric prM+E sequence in which the 100-residue carboxy-terminal region of E was derived from JEV (D2prMEJE20opt). pHIS and pCMVkan in the presence and absence of CpG motif, respectively, were used for cassette expression. The immunogenicity was compared in mice.

RESULTS

Three injections of full-length-D2prMEopt in pHIS and pCMVkan induced a comparable neutralizing antibody titer at post-week-2-injection and post-week-4-injection. The 100-μg DNA dose induced a numerically but not statistically higher neutralizing antibody titer than the 10-μg dose. The chimeric-D2prMEJE20opt produced higher extracellular prM and E protein levels in transfected Vero cells, but had a tendency to induce a lower neutralizing antibody titer in mice when compared with the full-length-D2prMEopt. To optimize the immunogenicity of D2prMEopt-DNA candidate, both expression plasmids can be used to generate reproducible high neutralizing titer. A higher dose of DNA immunogen may induce a higher neutralizing antibody response.

CONCLUSION

The strategy of the C-terminal region chimeric counterpart with JE20 did not improve but may have reduced the induction of neutralizing antibodies.

Generation and preclinical immunogenicity study of dengue type 2 virus-like particles derived from stably transfected mosquito cells

Recent phase IIb/III trials of a tetravalent live attenuated vaccine candidate revealed a need for improvement in the stimulation of protective immunity against diseases caused by dengue type 2 virus (DENV-2). Our attempts to develop particulate antigens for possibly supplementing live attenuated virus preparation involve generation and purification of recombinant DENV-2 virus-like particles (VLPs) derived from stably (prM+E)-expressing mosquito cells. Two VLP preparations generated with either negligible or enhanced prM cleavage exhibited different proportions of spherical particles and tubular particles of variable lengths. In BALB/c mice, VLPs were moderately immunogenic, requiring adjuvants for the induction of strong virus neutralizing antibody responses. VLPs with enhanced prM cleavage induced higher levels of neutralizing antibody than those without, but the stimulatory activity of both VLPs was similar in the presence of adjuvants. Comparison of EDIII-binding antibodies in mice following two adjuvanted doses of these VLPs revealed subtle differences in the stimulation of anti-EDIII binding antibodies. In cynomolgus macaques, VLPs with enhanced prM cleavage augmented strongly neutralizing antibody and EDIII-binding antibody responses in live attenuated virus-primed recipients, suggesting that these DENV-2 VLPs may be useful as the boosting antigen in prime-boost immunization. As the levels of neutralizing antibody induced in macaques with the prime-boost immunization were comparable to those infected with wild type virus, this virus-prime VLP-boost regimen may provide an immunization platform in which a need for robust neutralizing antibody response in the protection against DENV-2-associated illnesses could be tested.

Induction of neutralizing antibody response against four dengue viruses in mice by intramuscular electroporation of tetravalent DNA vaccines

DNA vaccine against dengue is an interesting strategy for a prime/boost approach. This study evaluated neutralizing antibody (NAb) induction of a dengue tetravalent DNA (TDNA) vaccine candidate administered by intramuscular-electroporation (IM-EP) and the benefit of homologous TDNA boosting in mice. Consensus humanized pre-membrane (prM) and envelope (E) of each serotypes, based on isolates from year 1962-2003, were separately cloned into a pCMVkan expression vector. ICR mice, five-six per group were immunized for three times (2-week interval) with TDNA at 100 µg (group I; 25 µg/monovalent) or 10 µg (group II; 2.5 µg/monovalent). In group I, mice received an additional TDNA boosting 13 weeks later. Plaque reduction neutralization tests (PRNT) were performed at 4 weeks post-last immunization. Both 100 µg and 10 µg doses of TDNA induced high NAb levels against all DENV serotypes. The median PRNT50 titers were comparable among four serotypes of DENV after TDNA immunization. Median PRNT50 titers ranged 240-320 in 100 µg and 160-240 in 10 µg groups (p = ns). A time course study of the 100 µg dose of TDNA showed detectable NAb at 2 weeks after the second injection. The NAb peaked at 4 weeks after the third injection then declined over time but remained detectable up to 13 weeks. An additional homologous TDNA boosting significantly enhanced the level of NAb from the nadir for at least ten-fold (p<0.05). Of interest, we have found that the use of more recent dengue viral strain for both vaccine immunogen design and neutralization assays is critical to avoid a mismatching outcome. In summary, this TDNA vaccine candidate induced good neutralizing antibody responses in mice; and the DNA/DNA prime/boost strategy is promising and warranted further evaluation in non-human primates.

An optimized expression vector for improving the yield of dengue virus-like particles from transfected insect cells

Recombinant virus-like particles (rVLPs) of flaviviruses are non-infectious particles released from cells expressing the envelope glycoproteins prM and E. Dengue virus rVLPs are recognized as a potential vaccine candidate, but large scale production of these particles is hindered by low yields and the occurrence of cytopathic effects. In an approach to improve the yield of rVLPs from transfected insect cells, several components of a dengue serotype 2 virus prM+E expression cassette were modified and the effect of these modifications was assessed during transient expression. Enhancement of extracellular rVLP levels by simultaneous substitutions of the prM signal peptide and the stem-anchor region of E with homologous cellular and viral counterparts, respectively, was further augmented by codon optimization. Extensive formation of multinucleated cells following transfection with the codon-optimized expression cassette was abrogated by introducing an E fusion loop mutation. This mutation also helped restore the extracellular E levels affected negatively by alteration of a charged residue at the pr-M junction, which was intended to promote maturation of rVLPs during export. Optimized expression cassettes generated in this multiple add-on modification approach should be useful in the generation of stably expressing clones and production of dengue virus rVLPs for immunogenicity studies.

Maturation of flaviviruses starts from one or more icosahedrally independent nucleation centres

Flaviviruses assemble as fusion-incompetent immature particles and subsequently undergo conformational change leading to release of infectious virions. Flavivirus infections also produce combined 'mosaic' particles. Here, using cryo-electron tomography, we report that mosaic particles of dengue virus type 2 had glycoproteins organized into two regions of mature and immature structure. Furthermore, particles of a maturation-deficient mutant had their glycoproteins organized into two regions of immature structure with mismatching icosahedral symmetries. It is therefore apparent that the maturation-related reorganization of the flavivirus glycoproteins is not synchronized across the whole virion, but is initiated from one or more nucleation centres. Similar deviation from icosahedral symmetry might be relevant to the asymmetrical mode of genome packaging and cell entry of other viruses.

Multiple regions in dengue virus capsid protein contribute to nuclear localization during virus infection

During infection, the capsid (C) protein of many flaviviruses localizes to the nuclei and nucleoli of several infected cell lines; the underlying basis and significance of C protein nuclear localization remain poorly understood. In this study, double alanine-substitution mutations were introduced into three previously proposed nuclear-localization signals (at positions 6-9, 73-76 and 85-100) of dengue virus C protein, and four viable mutants, c(K6A,K7A), c(K73A,K74A), c(R85A,K86A) and c(R97A,R98A), were generated in a mosquito cell line in which C protein nuclear localization was rarely observed. Indirect immunofluorescence analysis revealed that, whilst C protein was present in the nuclei of PS and Vero cells throughout infection with a dengue serotype 2 parent virus, the substitution mutations in c(K73A,K74A) and c(R85A,K86A) resulted in an elimination of nuclear localization in PS cells and marked reduction in Vero cells. Mutants c(K6A,K7A) and c(R97A,R98A) exhibited reduced nuclear localization at the late period of infection in PS cells only. All four mutants displayed reduced replication in PS, Vero and C6/36 cells, but there was a lack of correlation between nuclear localization and viral growth properties. Distinct dibasic residues within dengue virus C protein, many of which were located on the solvent-exposed side of the C protein homodimer, contribute to its ability to localize to nuclei during virus infection.

Alterations of pr-M cleavage and virus export in pr-M junction chimeric dengue viruses

During the export of flavivirus particles through the secretory pathway, a viral envelope glycoprotein, prM, is cleaved by the proprotein convertase furin; this cleavage is required for the subsequent rearrangement of receptor-binding E glycoprotein and for virus infectivity. Similar to many furin substrates, prM in vector-borne flaviviruses contains basic residues at positions P1, P2, and P4 proximal to the cleavage site; in addition, a number of charged residues are found at position P3 and between positions P5 and P13 that are conserved for each flavivirus antigenic complex. The influence of additional charged residues on pr-M cleavage and virus replication was investigated by replacing the 13-amino-acid, cleavage-proximal region of a dengue virus (strain 16681) with those of tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV), yellow fever virus (YFV), and Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) and by comparing the resultant chimeric viruses generated from RNA-transfected mosquito cells. Among the three chimeric viruses, cleavage of prM was enhanced to a larger extent in JEVpr/16681 than in YFVpr/16681 but was slightly reduced in TBEVpr/16681. Unexpectedly, JEVpr/16681 exhibited decreased focus size, reduced peak titer, and depressed replication in C6/36, PS, and Vero cell lines. The reduction of JEVpr/16681 multiplication correlated with delayed export of infectious virions out of infected cells but not with changes in specific infectivity. Binding of JEVpr/16681 to immobilized heparin and the heparin-inhibitable infection of cells were not altered. Thus, diverse pr-M junction-proximal sequences of flaviviruses differentially influence pr-M cleavage when tested in a dengue virus prM background. More importantly, greatly enhanced prM cleavability adversely affects dengue virus export while exerting a minimal effect on infectivity. Because extensive changes of charged residues at the pr-M junction, as in JEVpr/16681, were not observed among a large number of dengue virus isolates, these results provide a possible mechanism by which the sequence conservation of the pr-M junction of dengue virus is maintained in nature.

Construction of infectious dengue 2 virus cDNA clones using high copy number plasmid

Procedures for cloning entire dengue serotype 2 virus genome in the multiple cloning site of a commercially available high copy number plasmid are described. The 10.7 kb viral RNA genome was reverse transcribed, amplified as three overlapping DNA fragments and successively ligated into pBluescript II KS, which contains the colE1 origin of replication. When propagated at room temperature (20-25 degrees C) under low level of antibiotic selection, the full-length recombinant plasmid was stable upon serial passages in two common Escherichia coli strains employed. Under the same culture conditions the whole dengue cDNA sequence was transferred successfully to another high copy number plasmid, pGem 3Z. Following in vitro transcription and lipofectin-mediated transfection, capped RNA transcripts derived from the plasmid initiated virus replication in C6/36 mosquito cells and BHK-21 cells within 3-4 days of transfection. Upon subsequent expansion in C6/36 cells, dengue viruses derived from the first- and eighth-plasmid passages achieved similar titers as the parent virus. They were also indistinguishable from the parent virus by the criteria of replication kinetics in mosquito and mammalian cell lines, and size and reactivity of selected viral proteins as detected with polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies. The cloning scheme and resultant recombinant plasmids based on high copy number cloning vectors allows greater flexibility in manipulation of dengue viral genome when compared with previous attempts employing low-copy number counterparts.