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Bailey JT, Moshkani S, Rexhouse C, Cimino JL, Robek MD. CD4 + T cells reverse surface antigen persistence in a mouse model of HBV replication. Microbiol Spectr 2023; 11:e0344723. [PMID: 37948314 PMCID: PMC10715182 DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.03447-23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2023] [Accepted: 10/09/2023] [Indexed: 11/12/2023] Open
Abstract
IMPORTANCE Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a leading causative agent of viral hepatitis. A preventative vaccine has existed for decades, but only limited treatment options are available for people living with chronic HBV. Animal models for studying HBV are constrained due to narrow viral tropism, impeding understanding of the natural immune response to the virus. Here, using a vector to overcome the narrow host range and establish HBV replication in mice, we identified the role of helper T cells in controlling HBV. We show that helper T cells promote the B cell's ability to generate antibodies that remove HBV and its associated surface antigen from the blood and that transfer of purified helper T cells from HBV-immunized mice can reverse the accumulation of virus and antigen, furthering our understanding of the immune response to HBV.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacob T. Bailey
- Department of Immunology & Microbial Disease, Albany Medical College, Albany, New York, USA
| | - Safiehkhatoon Moshkani
- Department of Immunology & Microbial Disease, Albany Medical College, Albany, New York, USA
| | - Catherine Rexhouse
- Department of Immunology & Microbial Disease, Albany Medical College, Albany, New York, USA
| | - Jesse L. Cimino
- Department of Immunology & Microbial Disease, Albany Medical College, Albany, New York, USA
| | - Michael D. Robek
- Department of Immunology & Microbial Disease, Albany Medical College, Albany, New York, USA
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Chiale C, Marchese AM, Furuya Y, Robek MD. Virus-based vaccine vectors with distinct replication mechanisms differentially infect and activate dendritic cells. NPJ Vaccines 2021; 6:138. [PMID: 34811393 PMCID: PMC8608815 DOI: 10.1038/s41541-021-00400-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2020] [Accepted: 10/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
The precise mechanism by which many virus-based vectors activate immune responses remains unknown. Dendritic cells (DCs) play key roles in priming T cell responses and controlling virus replication, but their functions in generating protective immunity following vaccination with viral vectors are not always well understood. We hypothesized that highly immunogenic viral vectors with identical cell entry pathways but unique replication mechanisms differentially infect and activate DCs to promote antigen presentation and activation of distinctive antigen-specific T cell responses. To evaluate differences in replication mechanisms, we utilized a rhabdovirus vector (vesicular stomatitis virus; VSV) and an alphavirus-rhabdovirus hybrid vector (virus-like vesicles; VLV), which replicates like an alphavirus but enters the cell via the VSV glycoprotein. We found that while virus replication promotes CD8+ T cell activation by VLV, replication is absolutely required for VSV-induced responses. DC subtypes were differentially infected in vitro with VSV and VLV, and displayed differences in activation following infection that were dependent on vector replication but were independent of interferon receptor signaling. Additionally, the ability of the alphavirus-based vector to generate functional CD8+ T cells in the absence of replication relied on cDC1 cells. These results highlight the differential activation of DCs following infection with unique viral vectors and indicate potentially discrete roles of DC subtypes in activating the immune response following immunization with vectors that have distinct replication mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carolina Chiale
- Department of Immunology and Microbial Disease, Albany Medical College, Albany, NY, USA.,Division of Biological Sciences, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Anthony M Marchese
- Department of Immunology and Microbial Disease, Albany Medical College, Albany, NY, USA
| | - Yoichi Furuya
- Department of Immunology and Microbial Disease, Albany Medical College, Albany, NY, USA
| | - Michael D Robek
- Department of Immunology and Microbial Disease, Albany Medical College, Albany, NY, USA.
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Abstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW Antiviral therapy for chronic hepatitis B infection is rarely curative, thus research in HBV cure strategies is a priority. Drug development and testing has been hampered by the lack of robust cell culture systems and small animal models. This review summarizes existing models for HBV cure research and focuses on recent developments since 2017 until today. RECENT FINDINGS The field has progressed in the development of cell culture and animal models to study HBV. Although early cell culture systems relied on transfection of HBV genomes in hepatoma cell lines, novel models expressing the entry receptor for HBV are susceptible to infection. Improved culture conditions for primary human hepatocytes, the primary target of HBV, have enabled the screening and validation of novel antivirals. Mouse models grafted with partially humanized livers are suitable for testing viral entry inhibitors or direct acting antivirals, and can be reconstituted with human immune cells to analyze immunotherapies. Other immunocompetent models include mice transduced with HBV genomes or woodchucks infected with their native hepatitis virus. SUMMARY Model systems for HBV research have helped lay the groundwork for the development and optimization of antiviral and immune-based therapeutic approaches that are now moving to clinical trials.
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Virus-like vesicles based on SFV-containing rabies virus glycoprotein make a safe and efficacious rabies vaccine candidate in a mouse model. J Virol 2021; 95:e0079021. [PMID: 34346765 DOI: 10.1128/jvi.00790-21] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Rabies is a fatal zoonosis causing encephalitis in mammals, and vaccination is the most effective method to control and eliminate rabies. Virus-like vesicles (VLVs), which are characterized as infectious, self-propagating membrane-enveloped particles composed of only Semliki Forest virus (SFV) replicase and vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein (VSV-G), have been proven safe and efficient as vaccine candidates. However, previous studies showed that VLVs containing rabies virus glycoprotein (RABV-G) grew at relatively low titers in cells, impeding their potential use as a rabies vaccine. In this study, we constructed novel VLVs by transfection of a mutant SFV RNA replicon encoding RABV-G. We found these VLVs could self-propagate efficiently in cell culture and could evolve to high titers (approximately 108 FFU/ml) by extensive passaging 25 times in BHK-21 cells. Furthermore, we found that the evolved amino acid change in SFV nsP1 at positions 470 and 482 was critical for this high-titer phenotype. Remarkably, VLVs could induce robust type I IFN expression in BV2 cells and were highly sensitive to IFN-α. We found that direct inoculation of VLVs into the mouse brain caused lesser body weight loss, mortality and neuroinflammation compared with RABV vaccine strain. Finally, it could induce increased generation of germinal centre (GC) B cells, plasma cells (PCs) and virus-neutralizing antibodies (VNAs), as well as provide protection against virulent RABV challenge in immunized mice. This study demonstrated that VLVs containing RABV-G could proliferate in cells and were highly evolvable, revealing the feasibility of developing an economic, safe and efficacious rabies vaccine. IMPORTANCE VLVs have been shown to represent a more versatile and superior vaccine platform. In previous studies, VLVs containing the Semliki Forest Virus replicase (SFV nsP1-4) and rabies virus glycoprotein (RABV-G) grew to relatively low titers in cells. In our study, we not only succeeded in generating VLVs that proliferate in cells and stably express RABV-G, the VLVs that evolved grew to higher titers reaching 108 FFU/ml. We also found that nucleic acid changes at positions 470 and 482 in nsP1 were vital for this high-titer phenotype. Moreover, the VLVs that evolved in our studies were highly attenuated in mice, induced potent immunity and protected mice from lethal RABV infection. Collectively, our study showed that high titers of VLVs containing RABV-G were achieved demonstrating that these VLVs could be an economical, safe, and efficacious rabies vaccine candidate.
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Jansen DT, Dou Y, de Wilde JW, Woltman AM, Buschow SI. Designing the next-generation therapeutic vaccines to cure chronic hepatitis B: focus on antigen presentation, vaccine properties and effect measures. Clin Transl Immunology 2021; 10:e1232. [PMID: 33489122 PMCID: PMC7809700 DOI: 10.1002/cti2.1232] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2020] [Revised: 12/09/2020] [Accepted: 12/09/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
In the mid‐90s, hepatitis B virus (HBV)‐directed immune responses were for the first time investigated in detail and revealed suboptimal T‐cell responses in chronic HBV patients. Based on these studies, therapeutic vaccination exploiting the antigen presentation capacity of dendritic cells to prime and/or boost HBV‐specific T‐cell responses was considered highly promising. Now, 25 years later, it has not yet delivered this promise. In this review, we summarise what has been clinically tested in terms of antigen targets and vaccine forms, how the immunological and therapeutic effects of these vaccines were assessed and what major clinical and immunological findings were reported. We combine the lessons learned from these trials with the most recent insights on HBV antigen presentation, T‐cell responses, vaccine composition, antiviral and immune‐modulatory drugs and disease biomarkers to derive novel opportunities for the next generation of therapeutic vaccines designed to cure chronic HBV either alone or in combination therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diahann Tsl Jansen
- Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam Rotterdam The Netherlands
| | - Yingying Dou
- Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam Rotterdam The Netherlands
| | - Janet W de Wilde
- Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam Rotterdam The Netherlands.,Present address: Department of Viroscience Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam Rotterdam The Netherlands
| | - Andrea M Woltman
- Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam Rotterdam The Netherlands.,Present address: Institute of Medical Research Education Rotterdam Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam Rotterdam The Netherlands
| | - Sonja I Buschow
- Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam Rotterdam The Netherlands
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Chiale C, Yarovinsky TO, Mason SW, Madina BR, Menon M, Krady MM, Moshkani S, Chattopadhyay Pal A, Almassian B, Rose JK, Robek MD, Nakaar V. Modified Alphavirus-Vesiculovirus Hybrid Vaccine Vectors for Homologous Prime-Boost Immunotherapy of Chronic Hepatitis B. Vaccines (Basel) 2020; 8:vaccines8020279. [PMID: 32517032 PMCID: PMC7349932 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines8020279] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2020] [Revised: 05/29/2020] [Accepted: 05/31/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Virus-like vesicles (VLV) are hybrid vectors based on an evolved Semliki Forest virus (SFV) RNA replicon and the envelope glycoprotein (G) from vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV). Previously, we showed that VLV can be used to express protein antigens and generate protective antigen-specific CD8+ T cells. This report describes VLV vectors designed for enhanced protein expression and immunogenicity. Expressing hepatitis B virus (HBV) middle S antigen (MHBs) from VLV using a dual subgenomic promoter significantly increased MHBs-specific CD8+ T cell and antibody production in mice. Furthermore, envelope glycoprotein switch from VSV Indiana to the glycoprotein of Chandipura virus enabled prime-boost immunization and further increased responses to MHBs. Therapeutic efficacy was evaluated in a mouse model of chronic HBV infection initiated by HBV delivery with adeno-associated virus. Mice with lower or intermediate HBV antigen levels demonstrated a significant and sustained reduction of HBV replication following VLV prime-boost immunization. However, mice with higher HBV antigen levels showed no changes in HBV replication, emphasizing the importance of HBV antigenemia for implementing immunotherapies. This report highlights the potential of VLV dual promoter vectors to induce effective antigen-specific immune responses and informs the further development and evaluation of hybrid viral vaccine platforms for preventative and therapeutic purposes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carolina Chiale
- Department of Immunology and Microbial Disease, Albany Medical College, Albany, NY 12208, USA; (C.C.); (S.M.); (M.D.R.)
| | - Timur O. Yarovinsky
- Department of Pathology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510, USA; (A.C.P.); (J.K.R.)
- CaroGen Corporation, Farmington, CT 06032, USA; (S.W.M.); (B.R.M.); (M.M.); (M.M.K.); (B.A.)
- Correspondence: (T.O.Y.); (V.N.)
| | - Stephen W. Mason
- CaroGen Corporation, Farmington, CT 06032, USA; (S.W.M.); (B.R.M.); (M.M.); (M.M.K.); (B.A.)
| | - Bhaskara R. Madina
- CaroGen Corporation, Farmington, CT 06032, USA; (S.W.M.); (B.R.M.); (M.M.); (M.M.K.); (B.A.)
| | - Manisha Menon
- CaroGen Corporation, Farmington, CT 06032, USA; (S.W.M.); (B.R.M.); (M.M.); (M.M.K.); (B.A.)
| | - Marie M. Krady
- CaroGen Corporation, Farmington, CT 06032, USA; (S.W.M.); (B.R.M.); (M.M.); (M.M.K.); (B.A.)
| | - Safiehkhatoon Moshkani
- Department of Immunology and Microbial Disease, Albany Medical College, Albany, NY 12208, USA; (C.C.); (S.M.); (M.D.R.)
| | - Anasuya Chattopadhyay Pal
- Department of Pathology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510, USA; (A.C.P.); (J.K.R.)
| | - Bijan Almassian
- CaroGen Corporation, Farmington, CT 06032, USA; (S.W.M.); (B.R.M.); (M.M.); (M.M.K.); (B.A.)
| | - John K. Rose
- Department of Pathology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510, USA; (A.C.P.); (J.K.R.)
| | - Michael D. Robek
- Department of Immunology and Microbial Disease, Albany Medical College, Albany, NY 12208, USA; (C.C.); (S.M.); (M.D.R.)
| | - Valerian Nakaar
- CaroGen Corporation, Farmington, CT 06032, USA; (S.W.M.); (B.R.M.); (M.M.); (M.M.K.); (B.A.)
- Correspondence: (T.O.Y.); (V.N.)
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