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Journal of Virology, October 2005, p. 12871-12879, Vol. 79, No. 20
0022-538X/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.79.20.12871-12879.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Division of Experimental Animal Research,1 AIDS Research Center,2 Division of Biosafety Control and Research, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Toyama 1-23-1, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8640, Japan,3 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Iwate Medical University School of Medicine, Uchimaru 19-1, Morioka, Iwate 020-8505, Japan,4 Department of Host Defense, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka City University, Osaka, Osaka 545-8585, Japan,5 Department of Bacteriology, School of Dentistry, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Nagasaki 852-8588, Japan6
Received 29 April 2005/ Accepted 22 July 2005
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) spot-forming cells specific for SIV Gag were induced. This combination regimen elicited effective protective immunity against mucosal challenge with pathogenic simian-human immunodeficiency virus for the 1 year the macaques were under observation. Antigen-specific intracellular IFN-
activity was similarly induced in each of the macaques with the priming-boosting regimen. Other groups receiving the opposite combination or the single-modality vaccines were not effectively protected. These results suggest that a recombinant M. bovis BCG-based vector may have potential as an HIV/AIDS vaccine when administered in combination with a replication-deficient vaccinia virus DIs vector in a priming-boosting strategy. |
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When it comes to safety, traditional live vaccines, which have been administered safely to both the healthy and the infected, may be the vectors of choice for HIV-1 vaccines. In order to fully take advantage of the potential benefits of traditional live vectors in HIV-1 vaccine development, we studied the Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) substrain Tokyo 172 (6) and the replication-deficient vaccinia virus vaccine strain DIs (22, 50), both of which have been shown to be nonpathogenic when inoculated into immunodeficient animals (41, 51, 53) as live recombinant vaccine vehicles (1, 17-19, 46-48). As further evidence of the potential of the live vectors for use in HIV/AIDS vaccines, we noted that a recombinant M. bovis BCG vector candidate vaccine for HIV-1-induced positive immune responses in animals (17, 46). Moreover, we found that recombinant vaccinia virus DIs encoding the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) gene was effective at eliciting anti-SIV immunity in mice when administered as a booster antigen after priming with SIV DNA (47). In this study, we have developed a new combination regimen, priming with recombinant M. bovis BCG-SIV Gag followed by boosting with rDIsSIVgag. This immunization regimen elicited effective positive immunity against an immune deficiency virus in macaques for the 1 year they were under study.
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Two thousand 50% tissue culture infectious doses (TCID50) of SHIV KS661c, a pathogenic molecular clone, were intrarectally administered as a challenge virus (39). The parent virus, SHIV-C2/1, is an SHIV-89.6 variant isolated by in vivo passage in cynomolgus macaques (40, 42) and the original SHIV-89.6 strain was kindly provided by Y. Lu at the Harvard AIDS Institute (Boston, MA) (26, 37). SHIV-C2/1 and SHIV KS661c were shown to infect cynomologus macaques by both the intravenous and intrarectal routes (39). Both viruses induced high levels of viremia and marked CD4+ T-cell depletion within 2 and 3 weeks after inoculation, respectively (39, 40, 42). Virus stocks were stored at 125°C and thawed just prior to use.
Production and preparation of recombinant M. bovis BCG (rBCG) and vaccinia virus DIs expressing full-length SIV Gag. Detailed methods for plasmid construction were described previously (7, 17, 18, 21). Briefly, a DNA fragment encoding the full-length gag sequence of SIVmac239 was cloned downstream of the hsp60 promoter (52) and then inserted into the multicloning site of the plasmid pSO246 (28). Recombinant Mycobacterium bovis BCG substrain Tokyo 172 that stably expressed the inserted DNA fragment (designated rBCG-SIVgag) was then selected and used for all rBCG inoculations. For the Western blot analysis, the transformant of rBCG was grown in 7H9-ADC broth for 2 weeks and a portion of the culture medium was periodically collected, sonicated and blotted using the monoclonal antibody IB6, as described previously (47). Since the recombinant DIs virus (rDIs) encoding the SIVmac239 gag-pol open reading frame elicited remarkably high SIV Gag-specific T-cell responses but low polymerase responses in mice (47), confirming the findings of a previous report (20), we named it rDIsSIVgag. The rDIsSIVgag and rDIs encoding ß-galactosidase (rDIsLacZ) were prepared with chicken embryo fibroblast (CEF) cells (18, 47). Virus preparations were purified by sucrose density gradient ultracentrifugation and were adjusted to 107 PFU/ml. P27 antigen generation in cells was measured by antigen-specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (42).
Virus-specific IFN-
ELISPOT assays.
ELISPOT assays were performed using the method developed by and following the direct instructions of Mothe and Watkins, Wisconsin University Primate Center (31, 46). In brief, 96-well flat-bottomed plates (U-CyTech-BV, Utrecht, Netherlands) were coated with anti-gamma interferon (IFN-
) monoclonal antibody MD-1 (U-CyTech-BV). Freshly isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were added with either concanavalin A or pooled Gag peptides (AIDS Research and Reference Reagent Program, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD). The cells were then incubated in anti-IFN-
-coated plates before lysing with ice-cold deionized water. After plates had been washed, rabbit anti-IFN-
polyclonal biotinylated detector antibody (1 µg per well; U-CyTech-BV) was added. The plates were reacted with gold-labeled antibiotin immunoglobulin G solution by adding 30 µl of the activator mix (U-CyTech-BV) to each of the wells and allowing them to develop for 15 min.
Wells were imaged and spot-forming cells (SFC) were counted using the KS ELISPOT compact system (Carl Zeiss, Germany) (31, 46). An SFC was defined as a large black spot with a fuzzy border. To determine significance levels, we established a baseline for each peptide using the average and standard deviation of the number of SFC for each peptide. A threshold significance value corresponding to this average and two standard deviations were then determined. A response was considered positive if the number of SFC exceeded the threshold significance level of the sample with no added peptide.
Detection of intracellular IFN-
by flow cytometry.
Intracellular macaque IFN-
was detected by intracellular IFN-
cytokine staining as previously described (30). Briefly, freshly isolated PBMC was incubated with antigen for 16 h at 37°C with 5% CO2. During the final 6 to 8 h, brefeldin A (Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO) was added at 10 µg/ml. Antibody to CD28 (1 µg/ml, BD Pharmingen, San Diego, CA) was also added during the incubation as a costimulator molecule. After stimulation, the cells were stained with fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated anti-CD3 (FN18; Biosource, Camarillo, CA) and peridinin chlorophyll protein-conjugated anti-CD8 antibodies (Leu-2a; Becton Dickinson Biosciences, San Jose, CA). The cells were then sequentially incubated with fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS) lysing solution (Becton Dickinson) for 10 min and FACS permeabilizing solution (Becton Dickinson) for another 10 min. The cells were washed, stained with phycoerythrin-conjugated anti-human IFN-
antibody (4S.B3; BD Pharmingen), and fixed with 2% paraformaldehyde. Samples were analyzed with a FACSCalibur using Cell Quest software (Becton Dickinson).
Lymphocyte proliferative responses. SIV-specific proliferative responses were measured in freshly isolated PBMC as described by Gauduin et al. and Hel et al. (14, 15). PBMC were cultured in flat-bottomed 96-well plates with either concanavalin A or purified SIVmac251 p27 protein (Advanced BioScience Laboratories, Rockville, MD) (15) for three days before the addition of [3H]thymidine. Cells were harvested 16 h later to determine uptake.
Absolute CD4+ and CD8+ T-lymphocyte counts. An absolute cell count of peripheral blood was measured as previously described (55). Briefly, 50 µl of whole blood was placed in a polypropylene tube and incubated with FITC-conjugated monoclonal anti-CD3 (FN18; Biosource), phycoerythrin-conjugated anti-CD4 (Leu-3a; Becton Dickinson), and peridinin chlorophyll protein-conjugated anti-CD8 (Leu-2a; Becton Dickinson) antibodies at 4°C. After incubation with FACS lysing solution (Becton Dickinson), the cells were analyzed with a FACSCalibur using Cell Quest software (Becton Dickinson).
Plasma viral RNA copy numbers. Plasma viral RNA copy numbers were measured using a real-time quantification assay based on the TaqMan system (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA) and the Prism 7700 sequence detection system (Applied Biosystems), as reported previously (30, 46). Briefly, viral RNA was extracted and purified from macaque plasma samples using a QIAamp viral RNA mini kit (QIAGEN, Valencia, CA). The RNA was subjected to reverse-transcription and amplification using a TaqMan EZ RT-PCR Kit (Applied Biosystems) with SIV Gag consensus primers SIVmac239-1224F and SIVmac239-1326R, and the SIV Gag consensus Taqman probe FAM-SIV-1272T. To obtain control RNA for quantification, SIVmac239 gag RNA was synthesized using T7 RNA polymerase and pKS460, a template plasmid that contains SIVmac239 gag under control of the T7 promoter.
To measure the RNA recovery rate, 105 copies of SHIV KS661c, in which the viral RNA copy number was previously determined by branched DNA assay (Bayer), were extracted and purified using the same kit as for the sample. Plasma viral load was calculated based on the standard curve of control RNA and the RNA recovery rate. All assays were carried out in duplicate.
Statistical analysis. Data analysis was carried out using the Stat View program (SAS Institute, Cary, NC) and data are expressed as the mean ± standard deviation. A P value of <0.05 was considered significant.
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FIG. 1. Vector construction and expression of rBCG-SIVgag. (A) Construction of the expression vector pSO-SIVgag. Full-length DNA of SIVmac239 gag was inserted into the multicloning site of pSO246 and expressed in the vaccine strain M. bovis BCG Tokyo 172. (B) Detection of SIV Gag protein by Western blot with anti-p27 Gag monoclonal antibody IB6.
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Immune induction after single-modality or combined immunization regimens with vaccine candidates. We examined whether rBCG expressing the full-length gag gene of SIVmac239 would be suitable for use in combined prime-boost protocols with the replication-deficient vaccinia virus strain DIs recombinant. The rBCG was intradermally delivered to the inner region of the thigh and rDIs was intravenously administered into the small saphenous vein on the back of the leg. Of the 15 macaques registered in this study, 13 were divided into five groups and immunized using either a single-modality regimen plus vector controls or with a priming-boosting regimen consisting of M. bovis BCG and vaccinia virus DIs recombinants (Table 1). The remaining two macaques were inoculated with phosphate-buffered saline and served as naïve controls throughout the experiment.
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TABLE 1. Immunization and challenge schedulea
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Antigen-specific T-cell responses in all 15 animals were monitored by SIV Gag peptide-specific IFN-
-ELISPOT assays (Fig. 2). Fifty weeks postinfection, the rBCG/rDIs group showed the highest SIV Gag-specific IFN-
-ELISPOT responses; that group's responses peaked at 1,020 ± 360 SFC/106 PBMC at 56 weeks postinfection or 2 weeks after the second booster inoculation (Fig. 2A). At 56 weeks postinfection, the ELISPOT responses of the rDIs/rBCG group (380 ± 35 spots per million PBMC, Fig. 2B) were significantly lower than those of the rBCG/rDIs group (P < 0.05), as were the ELISPOT responses in other rBCG and rDIs groups, both at 56 weeks postinfection and before mucosal challenge with pathogenic SHIV (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the number of SFC in the control and in the two naïve macaque groups did not exceed twenty during the 64-wk immunization period. Thus, the two booster inoculations of rDIs in rBCG-immunized animals effectively induced Gag peptide-specific IFN-
-ELISPOT responses in peripheral blood, with the booster effect of DIs somewhat resembling that observed in our previous report on DNA/DIs prime-boost immunization in mice (47).
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FIG. 2. Kinetics of SIV Gag peptide-specific IFN- spot-forming cell responses. PBMC freshly isolated from macaques immunized with either rBCG-SIVgag or rDIsSIVgag alone or with the two in combination were assessed for their ability to produce IFN- in response to stimulation by overlapping peptides that span the SIV Gag protein. Arrows indicate inoculation dates of the rBCG/rDIs, rBCG,and control groups, and error bars represent mean ± standard deviation.
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ELISPOT by stimulating PBMC with SIV Gagp27 protein 56 weeks postinfection (Fig. 3A). The rBCG/rDIs group expressed whole-protein-specific IFN-
responses of 615 ± 49 cells per million PBMC and the highest peptide-specific ELISPOT responses at 56 weeks postinfection (Fig. 2) of all five groups, with the peptide-specific responses being higher than the protein-specific responses (Fig. 2 and 3A). Other groups exhibited fewer than 200 cells per million PBMC.
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FIG. 3. SIV Gag-specific IFN- production in both CD8+ and non-CD8+ T cells in animals immunized with the rBCG/rDIs priming-boosting regimen. (A) SIV Gag protein-specific IFN- Elispot responses in immunized monkeys. Monkey PBMC were prepared 2 weeks after final boosting, and 2 x 105 cells were stimulated with 2 µg of recombinant SIV Gag p27 antigen protein. The bars indicate mean values of antigen-specific IFN- spot-forming cells per 106 PBMC. (B) Flow cytometric analysis of IFN- -producing T cells specific for SIV Gag. PBMC from macaques were cultured in vitro with overlapping peptides and stained for intracellular IFN- . The percentage of IFN- -producing CD8+ T cells in each macaque's PBMC was determined by flow cytometry 2 weeks after final boosting.
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expression (CD8+IFN-
+ cells) and then performing flow cytometric analysis (Fig. 3B). In vitro stimulation of PBMC with SIV Gag peptides in macaques 08, 10, and 46 of the rBCG/rDIs group generated a higher percentage of CD8+ IFN-
+ T cells (1.34, 0.60, and 0.75%, respectively) than it did in animals of the rBCG group. Furthermore, non-CD8+ T cells in PBMC from each animal of the rBCG/rDIs group expressed higher levels of SIV Gag-specific IFN-
activities (macaque 8: 0.42%; macaque 10: 0.29%; macaque 46: 0.55%) than did those of the other two animal groups. The vector control animals had fewer than 0.03% of both CD8+ IFN-
+ and non-CD8+ IFN-
+ double-positive cells in PBMC. These findings show that the rBCG/rDIs prime-boost immunization augmented numbers of both IFN-
-specific intracellular staining-positive cells and ELISPOT in the immunized animals, and that antigen-specific IFN-
activities were highly induced in CD8+ as well as in non-CD8+ T cells, the latter most likely being CD4+ T cells. Mucosal challenge study with virulent SHIV KS661c for vaccine efficacy. Ten weeks after the second booster immunization or 64 weeks postinfection, the macaques were challenged by intrarectal inoculation with 2 x 103 TCID50 or 50 50% monkey infectious doses (MID50) of SHIV KS661c, a molecular clone derived from an SHIV-89.6 variant. As shown in Fig. 4, only those macaques in the rBCG/rDIs group first primed with rBCG-SIVgag and then boosted with two inoculations of rDIsSIVgag showed evidence of protective immune responses (rBCG/rDIs). For two animals in this group (macaques 10 and 46), plasma viremia levels remained undetectable (<500 RNA copies/ml, shadow in left panel of rBCG/rDIs in Fig. 4) and CD4+ T-cell counts stayed above 500 cells/µl (shadow in right panel of rBCG/rDIs in Fig. 4) for the entire year of testing. The third animal in this group (macaque 08) had fluctuating levels of viremia that were still significantly lower than those of animals in the other immunization groups. Coincidentally, this animal also had significantly decreased CD4+ T-cell counts.
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FIG. 4. Plasma viral loads and CD4+ T-cell counts after viral challenge. Postchallenge plasma viral RNA copies and absolute CD4+ T-cell counts in peripheral blood were detected in macaques in each of five groups immunized with a consecutive prime-boost regimen consisting of rBCG-SIVgag and rDIsSIVgag. In the study, 13 macaques were divided into five groups following the experimental designs described in Table 1.
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FIG. 6. Virus challenge enhances the SIV Gag peptide-specific IFN- ELISPOTs in PBMC from immunized macaques. PBMC from immunized animals were tested with pools of peptides spanning all the proteins from SIVmac239. Results show the production of IFN- to pooled peptides in CD8+ and non-CD8+ T lymphocytes.
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FIG. 5. Survival rates of immunized and control macaques in each of the five immunization groups. A Kaplan-Meier plot of cumulative survival rates at 1 year postchallenge with pathogenic SHIV is shown. The bold line represents group 3 immunized with the rBCG/rDIs priming-boosting regimen; the rectangular broken line represents the mean value for the total number of animals in groups 1, 2, 4, and 5.
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-positive cells in each animal by comparing the virus-specific IFN-
-positive cell numbers pre- and postchallenge (Fig. 6). In all of the challenged animals of the rBCG/rDIs group, the mean number of IFN-
-positive cells expanded from 369 ± 73 at the time of viral challenge to 629 ± 41 cells per 106 PBMC at 7 days after viral challenge, the sharpest increase noted with any of the animal groups. The animals of the rDIs/rBCG group showed much less enhancement, from a mean of 108 ± 46 cells per 106 PBMC before challenge to 224 ± 64 postchallenge, demonstrating that cellular immune responses are enhanced by viral challenge in the initial viral infection period in animals. Although in the rBCG/rDIs group high levels of IFN-
production were observed in both CD8+ and non-CD8+ T cells in all three monkeys, macaque 10 and macaque 46 maintained undetectable setpoint levels of plasma viral load and normal numbers of CD4+ lymphocytes, while macaque 08 did not. The macaques showed no clinical sign of weight loss, lymphoadenopathy, splenomegaly, anemia, or thrombocytopenia in the 1-year observation period. Furthermore, macaques in the rDIs group survived under low immune induction but exhibited CD4+ T-cell loss and plasma viremia. Notably, all macaques in the control group exhibited very low levels of immune induction by viral challenge and showed no viral control. |
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The rBCG/rDIs prime-boost vaccine controlled the infection efficiently for the duration of the one-year observation period, reducing viral loads to below the threshold level for RNA copies in peripheral blood and maintaining the CD4+ cell numbers above 500 cells per microliter of peripheral blood in two of the three animals in group 3. The remaining animal in the group showed fluctuations in the two parameters. Viral loads and CD4+ cell numbers were not significantly affected in animal groups following the other vaccine regimens. The level of vaccine efficacy for the rBCG/rDIs group seems to be comparable to that observed in previous studies with DNA/fusion protein of interleukin-2 and immunoglobulin G (5), DNA/MVA (3), DNA/recombinant adenovirus type 5 (Ad5) (45), and MVA/recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (36); that is, effective control of pathogenic SHIV 89.6P infection was achieved in macaques for 6 to 8 months.
SHIV KS661c, which was used as a mucosal challenge virus in this study, is a highly pathogenic molecular clone of a variant of SHIV-89.6 possessing a tropism of CXCR-4. In our preliminary study, the SHIV virus infected GHOST-X4 cells in vitro and the virus challenge eliminated the naïve CD4+ T-cell population in the peripheral blood in macaques, findings which confirmed those by Nishimura et al. (33, 34). In conjunction with CCR5-tropic pathogenic SIVsmE660, Ourmanov et al. obtained similar results with the partial control of homologous viremia by the recombinant MVA vaccination (35). Furthermore, the potential of the DNA vaccination to induce a broad spectrum of mucosal protection against heterologous SIV/DeltaB670 has been demonstrated (13).
Although the virus-specific immune elicitation by DNA/Ad5 vaccination was extremely high in immunized animals (45), the efficacy results for a DNA/Ad5 study with an SIVmac239 were not comparable to those for SHIV 89.6 (43). These discrepancies in vaccine efficacy by challenge viruses suggest that SIVmac239 might be a difficult virus to control by the active immunization of various vaccine candidates. Since DNA/Ad5 is expected to elicit higher levels of immunity than either MVA or DNA alone (43-45), it might be possible to obtain vaccine efficacy in conjunction with different CCR5-tropic SIV or SHIV from SIVmac239. Alternatively, a multicomponent DNA/Ad5 might elicit broad-spectrum immunity as well as protection against SIV or CCR5-SHIV. Recently, a DNA/Sendai virus vaccination (27) proved to be as effective at controlling SIVmac239 as an attenuated live SIV vaccine (10, 11), opening the possibility for studies comparing the protective immunity elicited by ordinary vaccination to that induced by attenuated live SIV vaccination.
Because the lack of an exact HIV-1 macaque model significantly limits our ability to study and calibrate vaccine efficacy, we may need to rely on parameters such as the control of viremia, the loss of CD4+ cells, and the absence of mortality to establish the efficacy of a tested vaccine against an immunodeficiency virus. Certainly, such parameters would represent a more realistic goal for the development of a preventive vaccine in the macaque model. They may also play a key role in the evaluation of vaccine efficacy in human trials I/II using the vaccine modalities developed in the macaque model.
It was recently reported that the AIDS vaccine failed in rhesus macaques approximately six months post-virus challenge, with viral avoidance of cytotoxic T-lymphocyte recognition posing a major limitation to cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-based AIDS vaccines (4). In contrast, the rBCG/rDIs prime-boost vaccine was shown in this study to control viral load throughout the 1-year observation period, suggesting that it may improve the prospects for a vaccine regimen capable of providing long-term protection against HIV-1 replication and disease progression (38, 49). Work is under way to determine whether this rBCG/rDIs vaccine will fail to control the plasma viral load in the macaque model, a failure associated with the viral escape of antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes.
The route of recombinant DIs administration will be key to effectively inducing immunity in humans. In the preliminary study to determine cellular immune induction, hundred times more rDIs was needed to achieve SIV Gag antigen-specific immunity in macaques by the intradermal (108 PFU/ml) than by the intravenous (106 PFU/ml) route (K. Someya et al., unpublished data). These findings may suggest that replication-defective vaccinia virus DIs is effective at eliciting antigen-specific immunity by intravenous administration. In addition, they suggest that the intravenous inoculation of rDIs may more effectively induce specific immunity than intradermal inoculation, although intravenous inoculation is not practical for use in human.
This study did not show a clear correlation between levels of virus-specific cellular immunity induced by booster inoculations with rDIs to rBCG-primed animals and protection against a highly virulent immunodeficiency virus after mucosal challenge. The levels of both virus-specific IFN-
ELISPOT and gamma interferon cytokine staining responses in peripheral blood from animals in the rBCG/rDIs group were the highest of the five groups studied. Why did the prime-boost vaccination of animals of the rBCG/rDIs group prove more effective than the vaccine protocols used with the other groups? We speculate that rBCG priming, which occurs at the skin region of the thigh near the inguinal and iliac lymph nodes draining the genitorectal mucosa, may elicit mucosal immunity in the region (23). Furthermore, we showed that the two booster intravenous inoculations with rDIs help induce a level of protective immunity sufficient to control a mucosal viral challenge in the immunized animals. Although the two intravenous inoculations with rDIsSIVgag alone proved capable of inducing some virus-specific immunity in peripheral blood after the homologous booster immunization in the immunized animals (DIs group), they appeared to provide no protection against the mucosal viral challenge.
The M. bovis BCG/DIs prime-boost vaccination might thus provide the opportunity to study the relationship between protection against mucosal viral challenge and elicitation of systemic or mucosal immunity. Our findings regarding the efficacy of the M. bovis BCG/DIs prime-boost vaccine regimen confirm those by Lehner et al. (23) and they further demonstrated a significant association between protection from mucosal rectal infection with SIV and an increase in the levels of CD8 suppressor factor and beta-chemokine. Although we cannot fully explain the differences in vaccine efficacy at this moment, it is likely that the routes of immunization and of challenge, the character of the vaccine vectors and the immunization schedule all play profound roles in eliciting vaccine efficacy in macaques.
Recently, considerable progress has been made in understanding M. bovis BCG as a HIV vaccine vector. Our own group demonstrated that recombinant M. bovis BCG vectors have the potential to deliver an HIV immunogen for desirable immune elicitation in macaques (46). Furthermore, M. bovis BCG vaccine substrain Tokyo 172 was revealed to be avirulent in HIV-infected children (16). The insertion of a full-length SIVmac239 gag into the M. bovis BCG substrain Tokyo 172 does not affect its toxicity, stability, or efficacy against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (54). Furthermore, rBCG has been shown to be nonvirulent in immunodeficient mice (54). These findings highlight the utility of rBCG as a vector for HIV-1 vaccine development.
In summary, our results demonstrate that a prime-boost vaccine regimen using rBCG as the prime and vaccinia virus rDIs as the boost can induce effective immunity against a mucosal infection with a highly virulent immunodeficiency virus for at least a year. Both of the vectors are safe for humans, making them attractive candidates for use in a preventive prime-boost vaccine against HIV-1.
This work was supported by the Panel on AIDS of the U.S.-Japan Cooperative Medical Science Program, the Human Science Foundation, Japan, and the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. This study was also supported by the AIDS vaccine project of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).
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