Expression of the VP1 protein of FMDV integrated chromosomally with mutant Listeria monocytogenes strain induced both humoral and cellular immune responses

Listeria-vectored cervical cancer vaccine candidate strains reduce MDSCs via the JAK-STAT signaling pathway

BACKGROUND

Immunosuppressive status is prevalent in cancer patients and increases the complexity of tumor immunotherapy. It has been found that Listeria-vectored tumor vaccines had the potential ability of two-side regulatory effect on the immune response during immunotherapy.

RESULTS

The results show that the combined immunotherapy with the LM∆E6E7 and LI∆E6E7, the two cervical cancer vaccine candidate strains constructed by our lab, improves the antitumor immune response and inhibits the suppressive immune response in tumor-bearing mice in vivo, confirming the two-sided regulatory ability of the immune response caused by Listeria-vectored tumor vaccines. The immunotherapy reduces the expression level of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs)-inducing factors and then inhibits the phosphorylation level of STAT3 protein, the regulatory factor of MDSCs differentiation, to reduce the MDSCs formation ability. Moreover, vaccines reduce the expression of functional molecules associated with MDSCs may by inhibiting the phosphorylation level of the JAK1-STAT1 and JAK2-STAT3 pathways in tumor tissues to attenuate the immunosuppressive function of MDSCs.

CONCLUSIONS

Immunotherapy with Listeria-vectored cervical cancer vaccines significantly reduces the level and function of MDSCs in vivo, which is the key point to the destruction of immunosuppression. The study for the first to elucidate the mechanism of breaking the immunosuppression.

Preimmunization with Listeria-vectored cervical cancer vaccine candidate strains can establish specific T-cell immune memory and prevent tumorigenesis

BACKGROUND

Although HPV prophylactic vaccines can provide effective immune protection against high-risk HPV infection, studies have shown that the protective effect provided by them would decrease with the increased age of vaccination, and they are not recommended for those who are not in the appropriate age range for vaccination. Therefore, in those people who are not suitable for HPV prophylactic vaccines, it is worth considering establishing memory T-cell immunity to provide long-term immune surveillance and generate a rapid response against lesional cells to prevent tumorigenesis.

METHODS

In this study, healthy mice were preimmunized with LM∆E6E7 and LI∆E6E7, the two Listeria-vectored cervical cancer vaccine candidate strains constructed previously by our laboratory, and then inoculated with tumor cells 40 d later.

RESULTS

The results showed that preimmunization with LM∆E6E7 and LI∆E6E7 could establish protective memory T-cell immunity against tumor antigens in mice, which effectively eliminate tumor cells. 60% of mice preimmunized with vaccines did not develop tumors, and for the remaining mice, tumor growth was significantly inhibited. We found that preimmunization with vaccines may exert antitumor effects by promoting the enrichment of T cells at tumor site to exert specific immune responses, as well as inhibiting intratumoral angiogenesis and cell proliferation.

CONCLUSION

Altogether, this study suggests that preimmunization with LM∆E6E7 and LI∆E6E7 can establish memory T-cell immunity against tumor antigens in vivo, which provides a viable plan for preventing tumorigenesis and inhibiting tumor progression.

Potent immune responses against thermostable Foot-and-Mouth disease virus VP1 nanovaccine adjuvanted with polymeric thermostable scaffold

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is an acute zoonosis causes significant economic losses. Vaccines able to stimulate efficient protective immune responses are urgently needed. In this study, Escherichia coli-derived recombinant VP1 of serotype A and O FMD virus (FMDV) was conjugated to thermostable scaffold lumazine synthase (LS) or Quasibacillus thermotolerans encapsulin (QtEnc) using a robust plug-and-display SpyTag/SpyCatcher system to generate multimeric nanovaccines. These nanovaccines induced highly potent antibody responses in vaccinated mice. On day 14 after the first immunisation, antibody titres were approximately 100 times higher than those of monomer antigens. Both vaccines induced high and long-term IgG antibody production. Moreover, the QtEnc-VP1 nanovaccine induced higher antibody titres than the LS-VP1 nanovaccine. The nanovaccines also induced Th1-biased immune responses and higher levels of neutralising antibodies. These data indicated that FMDV nanovaccines generated by conjugating VP1 with a thermostable scaffold are highly immunogenic and ideal candidates for FMDV control in low-resource areas.

Self-Assembling Nanovaccine Fused with Flagellin Enhances Protective Effect against Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus

Nanovaccines based on self-assembling nanoparticles (NPs) can show conformational epitopes of antigens and they have high immunogenicity. In addition, flagellin, as a biological immune enhancer, can be fused with an antigen to considerably enhance the immune effect of antigens. In improving the immunogenicity and stability of a foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) antigen, novel FMDV NP antigens were prepared by covalently coupling the VP1 protein and truncated flagellin containing only N-terminus D0 and D1 (N-terminal aa 1-99, nFLiC) with self-assembling NPs (i301). The results showed that the fusion proteins VP1-i301 and VP1-i301-nFLiC can assemble into NPs with high thermal tolerance and stability, obtain high cell uptake efficiency, and upregulate marker molecules and immune-stimulating cytokines in vitro. In addition, compared with monomeric VP1 antigen, high-level cytokines were stimulated with VP1-i301 and VP1-i301-nFLiC nanovaccines in guinea pigs, to provide clinical protection against viral infection comparable to an inactivated vaccine. This study provides new insight for the development of a novel FMD vaccine.

Evolutionary Qβ Phage Displayed Nanotag Library and Peptides for Biosensing

We selected a novel biotin-binding peptide for sensing biotin, biotinylated proteins, and nucleotides. From a 15-mer library displayed on the RNA coliphage Qβ, a 15-amino acid long peptide (HGHGWQIPVWPWGQG) hereby referred to as a nanotag was identified to selectively bind biotin. The target selection was achieved through panning with elution by infection. The selected peptide was tested as a transducer for an immunogenic epitope of the foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) on Qβ phage platform separated by a linker. The biotin-tag showed no significant influence on the affinity of the epitope to its cognate antibody (SD6). The nanotag-bound biotin selectively fused either to the C- or N-terminus of the epitope. The epitope would not bind or recognize SD6 while positioned at the N-terminus of the nanotag. Additionally, the biotin competed linearly with the SD6 antibody in a competitive ELISA. Competition assays using the selected recombinant phage itself as a probe or transducer enable the operationalization of this technology as a biosensor toolkit to sense and quantify SD6 analyte. Herein, the published Strep II nanotag (DVEWLDERVPLVET) was used as a control and has similar functionalities to our proposed novel biotin-tag thereby providing a new platform for developing devices for diagnostic purposes.

Recent advancement, immune responses, and mechanism of action of various vaccines against intracellular bacterial infections

Emerging and re-emerging bacterial infections are a serious threat to human and animal health. Extracellular bacteria are free-living, while facultative intracellular bacteria replicate inside eukaryotic host cells. Many serious human illnesses are now known to be caused by intracellular bacteria such as Salmonella enterica, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Rickettsia massiliae, Chlamydia species, Brucella abortus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Listeria monocytogenes, which result in substantial morbidity and mortality. Pathogens like Mycobacterium, Brucella, MRSA, Shigella, Listeria, and Salmonella can infiltrate and persist in mammalian host cells, particularly macrophages, where they proliferate and establish a repository, resulting in chronic and recurrent infections. The current treatment for these bacteria involves the application of narrow-spectrum antibiotics. FDA-approved vaccines against obligate intracellular bacterial infections are lacking. The development of vaccines against intracellular pathogenic bacteria are more difficult because host defense against these bacteria requires the activation of the cell-mediated pathway of the immune system, such as CD8+ T and CD4+ T. However, different types of vaccines, including live, attenuated, subunit, killed whole cell, nano-based and DNA vaccines are currently in clinical trials. Substantial development has been made in various vaccine strategies against intracellular pathogenic bacteria. This review focuses on the mechanism of intracellular bacterial infection, host immune response, and recent advancements in vaccine development strategies against various obligate intracellular bacterial infections.

A Listeria ivanovii balanced-lethal system may be a promising antigen carrier for vaccine construction

Expressing heterologous antigens by plasmids may cause antibiotic resistance. Additionally, antigen expression via plasmids is unstable due to the loss of the plasmid. Here, we developed a balanced‐lethal system. The Listeria monocytogenes (LM) balanced‐lethal system has been previously used as an antigen carrier to induce cellular immune response. However, thus far, there has been no reports on Listeria ivanovii (LI) balanced‐lethal systems. The dal and dat genes from the LI‐attenuated LIΔatcAplcB (LIΔ) were deleted consecutively, resulting in a nutrient‐deficient LIΔdd strain. Subsequently, an antibiotic resistance‐free plasmid carrying the LM dal gene was transformed into the nutrient‐deficient strain to generate the LI balanced‐lethal system LIΔdd:dal. The resultant bacterial strain retains the ability to proliferate in phagocytic cells, as well as the ability to adhere and invade hepatocytes. Its genetic composition was stable, and compared to the parent strain, the balanced‐lethal system was substantially attenuated. In addition, LIΔdd:dal induced specific CD4⁺/CD8⁺ T‐cell responses and protected mice against LIΔ challenge. Similarly, we constructed an LM balanced‐lethal system LMΔdd:dal. Sequential immunization with different recombinant Listeria strains will significantly enhance the immunotherapeutic effect. Thus, LIΔdd:dal combined with LMΔdd:dal, or with other balanced‐lethal systems will be more promising alternative for vaccine development.

Foot-and-mouth disease virus VP1 promotes viral replication by regulating the expression of chemokines and GBP1

Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) is an acute, highly contagious, and economically destructive pathogen of vesicular disease that affects domestic and wild cloven-hoofed animals. The FMDV VP1 protein is an important part of the nucleocapsid and plays a significant role during FMDV infection. However, the signal pathways mediated by VP1 in the life cycle of FMDV and the related mechanisms are not yet fully understood. Here, we performed RNA-seq to compare gene expression profiles between pCAGGS-HA-VP1 transfected PK-15 cells and pCAGGS-HA (empty vector) transfected PK-15 cells. The results showed 5,571 genes with significantly different expression levels, of which 2,981 were up-regulated and 2,590 were down-regulated. GO enrichment analysis showed that 51 GO terms were significantly enriched in cell components including protein complex, membrane and organelle part. KEGG enrichment analysis showed 11 KEGG pathways were significantly enriched which were mainly related to the immune system, infectious viral disease, and signal transduction. Among the up-regulated genes, the chemokines such as CCL5, CXCL8, and CXCL10 in turn promoted FMDV replication. In contrast, GBP1, an interferon-stimulated gene that was suppressed by VP1 and FMDV, could effectively inhibit FMDV replication. Our research provides a comprehensive overview of the response of host cells to VP1 protein and a basis for further research to understand the roles of VP1 in FMDV infection including the genes involved in FMDV replication.

Recombinant Listeria ivanovii strain expressing listeriolysin O in place of ivanolysin O might be a potential antigen carrier for vaccine construction

Listeria monocytogenes (LM) induces efficient and specific T-cell immune responses in the host. Listeriolysin O (LLO) is the main virulence protein of LM. LLO helps LM escape from the lysosome. However, the pronounced pathogenicity of LM limits its practical application as a live bacterial vector. Listeria ivanovii (LI) also displays intracellular parasitic abilities, cell to cell transfer, and other LM properties, with an elevated biosafety relative to LM. We have confirmed that LI can be used as a viable bacterial vaccine vector. However, we have also observed in vivo that LI vector vaccine candidates survive in the immune organ (spleen) for a shorter time compared with the survival time of LM and elicit weaker immune responses compared with LM. Studies have confirmed that hemolysin correlates with some important biological properties of Listeria, including cell invasion, intracellular proliferation, and the ability to induce immune responses. We speculated that the weaker immunogenicity of LI compared to LM may be related to the function of ivanolysin O (ILO). Here, we established a hemolysin gene deletion strain, LIΔilo, and a modified strain, LIΔilo:hly, whose ilo was replaced by hly. The hemolysin-modified strain was attenuated; however, it led to significantly improved invasive and proliferative activities of antigen-presenting cells, including those of RAW 264.7 macrophages, compared with the effects of LI. Mice immunized twice with LIΔilo:hly showed higher cytokine levels and better challenge protection rates than LI-immunized mice. This is the first description in Listeria carrier vaccine research of the modification of LI hemolysin to obtain a better vaccine carrier than LI. The recombinant strain LIΔilo:hly showed good biosafety and immunogenicity, and thus appears to be a good vector strain for vaccine development.

Safety of a Novel Listeria monocytogenes-Based Vaccine Vector Expressing NcSAG1 (Neospora caninum Surface Antigen 1)

Listeria monocytogenes (LM) has been proposed as vaccine vector in various cancers and infectious diseases since LM induces a strong immune response. In this study, we developed a novel and safe LM-based vaccine vector platform, by engineering a triple attenuated mutant (Lm3Dx) (ΔactA, ΔinlA, ΔinlB) of the wild-type LM strain JF5203 (CC 1, phylogenetic lineage I). We demonstrated the strong attenuation of Lm3Dx while maintaining its capacity to selectively infect antigen-presenting cells (APCs) in vitro. Furthermore, as proof of concept, we introduced the immunodominant Neospora caninum (Nc) surface antigen NcSAG1 into Lm3Dx. The NcSAG1 protein was expressed by Lm3Dx_SAG1 during cellular infection. To demonstrate safety of Lm3Dx_SAG1 in vivo, we vaccinated BALB/C mice by intramuscular injection. Following vaccination, mice did not suffer any adverse effects and only sporadically shed bacteria at very low levels in the feces (<100 CFU/g). Additionally, bacterial load in internal organs was very low to absent at day 1.5 and 4 following the 1st vaccination and at 2 and 4 weeks after the second boost, independently of the physiological status of the mice. Additionally, vaccination of mice prior and during pregnancy did not interfere with pregnancy outcome. However, Lm3Dx_SAG1 was shed into the milk when inoculated during lactation, although it did not cause any clinical adverse effects in either dams or pups. Also, we have indications that the vector persists more days in the injected muscle of lactating mice. Therefore, impact of physiological status on vector dynamics in the host and mechanisms of milk shedding requires further investigation. In conclusion, we provide strong evidence that Lm3Dx is a safe vaccine vector in non-lactating animals. Additionally, we provide first indications that mice vaccinated with Lm3Dx_SAG1 develop a strong and Th1-biased immune response against the Lm3Dx-expressed neospora antigen. These results encourage to further investigate the efficiency of Lm3Dx_SAG1 to prevent and treat clinical neosporosis.

Combination immunotherapy with two attenuated Listeria strains carrying shuffled HPV-16 E6E7 protein causes tumor regression in a mouse tumor model

Cervical cancer continues to impose a heavy burden worldwide, and human papilloma virus (HPV) infection, especially persistent infection with type 16 (HPV-16), is known to be the primary etiological factor. Therapeutic vaccines are urgently needed because prophylactic vaccines are ineffective at clearing pre-existing HPV infection. Here, two recombinant Listeria strains (LMΔ-E6E7 & LIΔ-E6E7) with deletions of the actA and plcB genes, expressing the shuffled HPV-16 E6E7 protein were constructed. The strains were delivered into the spleen and liver by intravenous inoculation, induced antigen-specific cellular immunity and were eliminated completely from the internal organs several days later. Intravenously treating with single strain for three times, or with both strains alternately for three times significantly reduced the tumor size and prolonged the survival time of model mice. Combination immunotherapy with two strains seemed more effective than immunotherapy with single strain in that it enhanced the survival of the mice, and the LMΔ-E6E7-prime-LIΔ-E6E7-boost strategy showed significant stronger efficacy than single treatment with the LIΔ-E6E7 strain. The antitumor effect of this treatment might due to its ability to increase the proportion of CD8⁺ T cells and reduce the proportion of T regulatory cells (Tregs) in the intratumoral milieu. This is the first report regarding Listeria ivanovii-based therapeutic vaccine candidate against cervical cancer. Most importantly we are the first to confirm that combination therapy with two different recombinant Listeria strains has a more satisfactory antitumor effect than administration of a single strain. Thus, we propose a novel prime-boost treatment strategy.

Salmonella Vaccine Vector System for Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus and Evaluation of Its Efficacy with Virus-Like Particles

Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) causes a highly contagious and devastating disease in livestock animals and has a great potential to cause severe economic loss worldwide. The major antigen of FMDV capsid protein, VP1, contains the major B-cell epitope responsible for effectively eliciting protective humoral immunity. In this study, irradiated Salmonella Typhimurium (KST0666) were used as transgenic vectors containing stress-inducible plasmid pRECN-VP1 to deliver the VP1 protein from FMDV-type A/WH/CHA/09. Mice were orally inoculated with ATOMASal-L3 harboring pRECN-VP1, and FMDV virus-like particles, where (VLP_FMDV)-specific humoral, mucosal, and cellular immune responses were evaluated. Mice vaccinated with attenuated Salmonella (KST0666) expressing VP1 (named KST0669) showed high levels of VLP-specific IgA in feces and IgG in serum, with high FMDV neutralization titer. Moreover, KST0669-vaccinated mice showed increased population of IFN-γ (type 1 T helper cells; Th1 cells)-, IL-5 (Th2 cells)-, and IL-17A (Th17 cells)-expressing CD4⁺ as well as activated CD8⁺ T cells (IFN-γ⁺CD8⁺ cells), detected by stimulating VLP_FMDV. All data indicate that our Salmonella vector system successfully delivered FMDV VP1 to immune cells and that the humoral and cellular efficacy of the vaccine can be easily evaluated using VLP_FMDV in a Biosafety Level I (BSL1) laboratory.

A Cross-Protective Vaccine Against 4b and 1/2b Listeria monocytogenes

Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) is a foodborne zoonotic pathogen that causes listeriosis with a mortality rate of 20-30%. Serovar 4b and 1/2b isolates account for most of listeriosis outbreaks, however, no listeriosis vaccine is available for either prophylactic or therapeutic use. Here, we developed a triple-virulence-genes deletion vaccine strain, and evaluated its safety, immunogenicity, and cross-protective efficiency. The virulence of NTSNΔactA/plcB/orfX was reduced 794-folds compared with the parental strain. Additionally, it was completely eliminated in mice at day 7 post infection and no obvious pathological changes were observed in the organs of mice after prime-boost immunization for 23 days. These results proved that the safety of the Lm vaccine strain remarkably increased. More importantly, the NTSNΔactA/plcB/orfX strain stimulated higher anti-Listeriolysin O (LLO) antibodies, induced significantly higher expression of IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-17, and IL-6 than the control group, and afforded 100% protection against serovar 4b and 1/2b challenges. Taken together, our research demonstrates that the triple-genes-deletion vaccine has high safety, can elicit strong Th1 type immune response, and affords efficient cross-protection against two serovar Lm strains. It is a promising vaccine for prevention of listeriosis.

Heterologous Boosting With Listeria-Based Recombinant Strains in BCG-Primed Mice Improved Protection Against Pulmonary Mycobacterial Infection

While Baccillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) is used worldwide, tuberculosis (TB) is still a global concern due to the poor efficacy of BCG. Novel vaccine candidates are therefore urgently required. In this study, two attenuated recombinant Listeria strains, LMΔ-msv and LIΔ-msv were constructed by deletion of actA and plcB and expression of a fusion protein consisting of T cell epitopes from four Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) antigens (Rv2460c, Rv2660c, Rv3875, and Rv3804c). The safety and immunogenicity of the two recombinant strains were evaluated in C57BL/6J mice. After intravenous immunization individually, both recombinant strains entered liver and spleen but eventually were eliminated from these organs after several days. Simultaneously, they induced antigen-specific cell-mediated immunity, indicating that the recombinant Listeria strains were immunogenic and safe in vivo. LMΔ-msv immunization induced stronger cellular immune responses than LIΔ-msv immunization, and when boosted with LIΔ-msv, antigen-specific IFN-γ CD8⁺ T cell responses were notably magnified. Furthermore, we evaluated the protection conferred by the vaccine candidates against mycobacterial infection via challenging the mice with 1 × 10⁷ CFU of BCG. Especially, we tested the feasibility of application of them as heterologous BCG supplement vaccine by immunization of mice with BCG firstly, and boosted with LMΔ-msv and LIΔ-msv sequentially before challenging. Combination immune strategy (LMΔ-msv prime-LIΔ-msv boost) conferred comparable protection efficacy as BCG alone. More importantly, BCG-vaccinated mice acquired stronger resistance to Mycobacterial challenge when boosted with LMΔ-msv and LIΔ-msv sequentially. Our results inferred that heterologous immunization with Listeria-based recombinant strains boosted BCG-primed protection against pulmonary mycobacterial infection.

Comparative nucleotide sequencing of the VP1 capsid gene of recent isolates of foot-and-mouth disease virus serotype O from Egypt

Since 2006, Egypt has been affected by eleven various foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) lineages. Accordingly, the nucleotide sequences of the 1D gene and the genes encoding the external capsid protein of some isolates of serotype O (the most predominant epidemic serotype in the country) collected from 2004 to 2017 were determined. All of these viruses (including the vaccine strain) belonged to serotype O, topotype ME-SA, and lineage Sharquia-72, and their sequences were of 98.6-98.9% identical to that of strain O1/Sharquia/EGY/72 (DQ164871), and differed from cultured and clinical (D197E) virus strains. The characteristic sites on the surface of the structural proteins of the Egyptian serotype O, topotype ME-SA viruses were located at residues 138 and 198 of VP1, residue 132 of VP2, and residues 56 and 104 of VP3. Furthermore, a phylogenetic tree revealed that Sharquia-72 was the only lineage present in Egypt for many decades prior to 2007. Unfortunately, however, during the last decade, five lineages of two separate topotypes of FMDV serotype O were detected in Egypt. Lineages Sharquia-72 and PanAsia-2 belong to topotype ME-SA and show ~ 14.5 to 17.5% intra-lineage divergence. In addition, lineages Qal-13, Ism-16, and Alx-17 cluster within topotype EA-3 and show ~ 4.5 to 15% intra-lineage diversity. The predecessors of the Egyptian EA-3 viruses are likely to have been from Sudan. Finally, at least a penta- or hexavalent vaccine comprising strains representing the endemic FMDV topotypes should be implemented on a wide scale in Egypt, which could combat the incursion of new lineages.

Codon optimization, expression in Escherichia coli, and immunogenicity analysis of deformed wing virus (DWV) structural protein

Background

Deformed wing virus (DWV) is a serious threat to honey bees (Apis mellifera) and is considered a major cause of elevated losses of honey bee colonies. However, lack of information on the immunogenicity of DWV structural proteins has hindered the development of effective biocontrol drugs.

Methods

We optimized the VP1, VP2 and VP3 codons of DWV surface capsid protein genes on the basis of an Escherichia coli codon bias, and the optimized genes of roVP1, roVP2 and roVP3 were separately expressed in E. coli and purified. Next, the three recombinant proteins of roVP1, roVP2 and roVP3 were intramuscularly injected into BALB/c and the immunogenicity was evaluated by the levels of specific IgG and cytokines. Furthermore, anti-roVP-antisera (roVP1 or roVP2 or roVP3) from the immunized mice was incubated with DWV for injecting healthy white-eyed pupae for the viral challenge test, respectively.

Results

The optimized genes roVP1, roVP2 and roVP3 achieved the expression in E. coli using SDS-PAGE and Western blotting. Post-immunization, roVP2 and roVP3 exhibited higher immunogenicity than roVP1 and stimulated a stronger humoral immune response in the mice, which showed that the recombinant proteins of roVP3 and roVP2 induced a specific immune response in the mice. In the challenge test, data regarding quantitative real-time RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) from challenged pupae showed that the level of virus copies in the recombinant protein groups was significantly lower than that of the virus-only group at 96 h post-inoculation (P < 0.05). Among them, the degree of neutralization using antibodies raised to the recombinant proteins are between approximately 2-fold and 4-fold and the virus copies of the roVP3 group are the lowest in the three recombinant protein groups, which indicated that specific antibodies against recombinant proteins roVP1, roVP2 and roVP3 of DWV could neutralize DWV to reduce the virus titer in the pupae. Collectively, these results demonstrated that the surface capsid protein of DWV acted as candidates for the development of therapeutic antibodies against the virus.