Design and preclinical development of a recombinant protein and DNA plasmid mixed format vaccine to deliver HIV-derived T-lymphocyte epitopes

Recombinant and epitope-based vaccines on the road to the market and implications for vaccine design and production

Novel vaccination approaches based on rational design of B- and T-cell epitopes - epitope-based vaccines - are making progress in the clinical trial pipeline. The epitope-focused recombinant protein-based malaria vaccine (termed RTS,S) is a next-generation approach that successfully reached phase-III trials, and will potentially become the first commercial vaccine against a human parasitic disease. Progress made on methods such as recombinant DNA technology, advanced cell-culture techniques, immunoinformatics and rational design of immunogens are driving the development of these novel concepts. Synthetic recombinant proteins comprising both B- and T-cell epitopes can be efficiently produced through modern biotechnology and bioprocessing methods, and can enable the induction of large repertoires of immune specificities. In particular, the inclusion of appropriate CD4+ T-cell epitopes is increasingly considered a key vaccine component to elicit robust immune responses, as suggested by results coming from HIV-1 clinical trials. In silico strategies for vaccine design are under active development to address genetic variation in pathogens and several broadly protective "universal" influenza and HIV-1 vaccines are currently at different stages of clinical trials. Other methods focus on improving population coverage in target populations by rationally considering specificity and prevalence of the HLA proteins, though a proof-of-concept in humans has not been demonstrated yet. Overall, we expect immunoinformatics and bioprocessing methods to become a central part of the next-generation epitope-based vaccine development and production process.

Expression, purification, and renaturation of a recombinant peptide-based HIV vaccine in Escherichia coli

To design an epitope-based vaccine for Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), we previously predicted 20 potential HIV epitopes using bioinformatics approaches. The combination of these 20 epitopes has a theoretical coverage of 98.1% of the population for both the prevalent HIV genotypes and Chinese human leukocyte antigen DR types. To test the immunogenicity of this vaccine in vivo, a corresponding antigen needs to be prepared. To this end, we constructed a recombinant plasmid containing DNA encoding the epitopes and GPGPG spacers and a 6-His tag for verification of protein expression and ease of purification, and then transformed Escherichia coli cells with the plasmid. After IPTG induction, the recombinant protein was expressed in the form of mainly inclusion bodies. To stabilize the structure of denatured inclusion bodies for efficient purification and renaturation in vitro, we transferred the dissolved inclusion bodies from 7 mol/L guanidine hydrochloride to 8 mol/L urea. Under denaturing conditions, the vaccine protein was purified by a 3-step process including ion-exchange chromatography and affinity column, and then renatured by stepwise dialysis. Together, the above described procedures generated 43 mg of vaccine protein per litre of fermentation medium, and the final product reached approximately 95% purity. The purified protein was capable of eliciting antigen-specific T-cell responses in immunized mice.

Designing peptide-based HIV vaccine for Chinese

CD4+ T cells are central to the induction and maintenance of CD8+ T cell and antibody-producing B cell responses, and the latter are essential for the protection against disease in subjects with HIV infection. How to elicit HIV-specific CD4+ T cell responses in a given population using vaccines is one of the major areas of current HIV vaccine research. To design vaccine that targets specifically Chinese, we assembled a database that is comprised of sequences from 821 Chinese HIV isolates and 46 human leukocyte antigen (HLA) DR alleles identified in Chinese population. We then predicted 20 potential HIV epitopes using bioinformatics approaches. The combination of these 20 epitopes has a theoretical coverage of 98.1% of the population for both the prevalent HIV genotypes and also Chinese HLA-DR types. We suggest that testing this vaccine experimentally will facilitate the development of a CD4+ T cell vaccine especially catered for Chinese.

A truncated plasmid-encoded HIV-1 reverse transcriptase displays strong immunogenicity

Besides being an important target in the antiretroviral therapy against the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), the HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (RT) enzyme has potential as a vaccine antigen. In this study, we explored the ability of plasmid-encoded RT to induce cell-mediated immune responses. The strategy for increasing the immunogenicity of the protein was to delete non- or low-immunogenic parts in order to focus the immune responses to known immunogenic regions. Expression and immunogenicity of the truncated RT was compared to a clinically evaluated full-length RT construct, and the truncated RT displayed enhanced in vitro expression and cell-mediated immune responses in BALB/c and HLA-A0201 transgenic C57BL/6 mice. The strong immune responses were retained also when the truncated RT was delivered as a part of a multigene HIV-1 vaccine. Linking the RT gene to a highly expressed HIV-1 protease gene did not increase the immunogenicity of RT. This optimization strategy could be used to enhance the immunogenicity of other RT-encoding DNA vaccines.

DNA and modified vaccinia virus Ankara vaccines encoding multiple cytotoxic and helper T-lymphocyte epitopes of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) are safe but weakly immunogenic in HIV-1-uninfected, vaccinia virus-naive adults

We evaluated a DNA plasmid-vectored vaccine and a recombinant modified vaccinia virus Ankara vaccine (MVA-mBN32), each encoding cytotoxic and helper T-lymphocyte epitopes of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) in a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial in 36 HIV-1-uninfected adults using a heterologous prime-boost schedule. HIV-1-specific cellular immune responses, measured as interleukin-2 and/or gamma interferon production, were induced in 1 (4%) of 28 subjects after the first MVA-mBN32 immunization and in 3 (12%) of 25 subjects after the second MVA-mBN32 immunization. Among these responders, polyfunctional T-cell responses, including the production of tumor necrosis factor alpha and perforin, were detected. Vaccinia virus-specific antibodies were induced to the MVA vector in 27 (93%) of 29 and 26 (93%) of 28 subjects after the first and second immunizations with MVA-mBN32. These peptide-based vaccines were safe but were ineffective at inducing HIV-1-specific immune responses and induced much weaker responses than MVA vaccines expressing the entire open reading frames of HIV-1 proteins.

Human leukocyte antigen variants B*44 and B*57 are consistently favorable during two distinct phases of primary HIV-1 infection in sub-Saharan Africans with several viral subtypes

As part of an ongoing study of early human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection in sub-Saharan African countries, we have identified 134 seroconverters (SCs) with distinct acute-phase (peak) and early chronic-phase (set-point) viremias. SCs with class I human leukocyte antigen (HLA) variants B*44 and B*57 had much lower peak viral loads (VLs) than SCs without these variants (adjusted linear regression beta values of -1.08 ± 0.26 log(10) [mean ± standard error] and -0.83 ± 0.27 log(10), respectively; P < 0.005 for both), after accounting for several nongenetic factors, including gender, age at estimated date of infection, duration of infection, and country of origin. These findings were confirmed by alternative models in which major viral subtypes (A1, C, and others) in the same SCs replaced country of origin as a covariate (P ≤ 0.03). Both B*44 and B*57 were also highly favorable (P ≤ 0.03) in analyses of set-point VLs. Moreover, B*44 was associated with relatively high CD4(+) T-cell counts during early chronic infection (P = 0.02). Thus, at least two common HLA-B variants showed strong influences on acute-phase as well as early chronic-phase VL, regardless of the infecting viral subtype. If confirmed, the identification of B*44 as another favorable marker in primary HIV-1 infection should help dissect mechanisms of early immune protection against HIV-1 infection.