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Prosper P, Rodríguez Puertas R, Guérin DMA, Branda MM. Computational method for designing vaccines applied to virus-like particles (VLPs) as epitope carriers. Vaccine 2024; 42:3916-3929. [PMID: 38782665 DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.05.025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2023] [Revised: 04/06/2024] [Accepted: 05/04/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024]
Abstract
Nonenveloped virus-like particles (VLPs) are self-assembled oligomeric structures composed of one or more proteins that originate from diverse viruses. Because these VLPs have similar antigenicity to the parental virus, they are successfully used as vaccines against cognate virus infection. Furthermore, after foreign antigenic sequences are inserted in their protein components (chimVLPs), some VLPs are also amenable to producing vaccines against pathogens other than the virus it originates from (these VLPs are named platform or epitope carrier). Designing chimVLP vaccines is challenging because the immunogenic response must be oriented against a given antigen without altering stimulant properties inherent to the VLP. An important step in this process is choosing the location of the sequence modifications because this must be performed without compromising the assembly and stability of the original VLP. Currently, many immunogenic data and computational tools can help guide the design of chimVLPs, thus reducing experimental costs and work. In this study, we analyze the structure of a novel VLP that originate from an insect virus and describe the putative regions of its three structural proteins amenable to insertion. For this purpose, we employed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to assess chimVLP stability by comparing mutated and wild-type (WT) VLP protein trajectories. We applied this procedure to design a chimVLP that can serve as a prophylactic vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The methodology described in this work is generally applicable for VLP-based vaccine development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pascalita Prosper
- Instituto de Física Aplicada - INFAP, Universidad Nacional de San Luis/CONICET, Argentina, Av. Ejército de los Andes 950, 5700 San Luis, San Luis, Argentina
| | - Rafael Rodríguez Puertas
- Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU), Dept. Farmacología, Facultad de Medicina, B° Sarriena S/N, 48940 Leioa, Vizcaya, Spain; Neurodegenerative Diseases, BioCruces Bizkaia Health Research Institute, Barakaldo, Spain
| | - Diego M A Guérin
- Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU) and Instituto Biofisika (CSIC, UPV/EHU), B° Sarriena S/N, 48940 Leioa, Vizcaya, Spain
| | - María Marta Branda
- Instituto de Física Aplicada - INFAP, Universidad Nacional de San Luis/CONICET, Argentina, Av. Ejército de los Andes 950, 5700 San Luis, San Luis, Argentina.
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2
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Boulton S, Poutou J, Gill R, Alluqmani N, He X, Singaravelu R, Crupi MJ, Petryk J, Austin B, Angka L, Taha Z, Teo I, Singh S, Jamil R, Marius R, Martin N, Jamieson T, Azad T, Diallo JS, Ilkow CS, Bell JC. A T cell-targeted multi-antigen vaccine generates robust cellular and humoral immunity against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Mol Ther Methods Clin Dev 2023; 31:101110. [PMID: 37822719 PMCID: PMC10562195 DOI: 10.1016/j.omtm.2023.101110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2023] [Accepted: 09/13/2023] [Indexed: 10/13/2023]
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2, the etiological agent behind the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, has continued to mutate and create new variants with increased resistance against the WHO-approved spike-based vaccines. With a significant portion of the worldwide population still unvaccinated and with waning immunity against newly emerging variants, there is a pressing need to develop novel vaccines that provide broader and longer-lasting protection. To generate broader protective immunity against COVID-19, we developed our second-generation vaccinia virus-based COVID-19 vaccine, TOH-VAC-2, encoded with modified versions of the spike (S) and nucleocapsid (N) proteins as well as a unique poly-epitope antigen that contains immunodominant T cell epitopes from seven different SARS-CoV-2 proteins. We show that the poly-epitope antigen restimulates T cells from the PBMCs of individuals formerly infected with SARS-CoV-2. In mice, TOH-VAC-2 vaccination produces high titers of S- and N-specific antibodies and generates robust T cell immunity against S, N, and poly-epitope antigens. The immunity generated from TOH-VAC-2 is also capable of protecting mice from heterologous challenge with recombinant VSV viruses that express the same SARS-CoV-2 antigens. Altogether, these findings demonstrate the effectiveness of our versatile vaccine platform as an alternative or complementary approach to current vaccines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen Boulton
- Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L6, Canada
- Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1H 8M5, Canada
| | - Joanna Poutou
- Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L6, Canada
- Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1H 8M5, Canada
| | - Rida Gill
- Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L6, Canada
| | - Nouf Alluqmani
- Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L6, Canada
- Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1H 8M5, Canada
| | - Xiaohong He
- Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L6, Canada
| | - Ragunath Singaravelu
- Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L6, Canada
- Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1H 8M5, Canada
| | - Mathieu J.F. Crupi
- Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L6, Canada
- Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1H 8M5, Canada
| | - Julia Petryk
- Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L6, Canada
| | - Bradley Austin
- Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L6, Canada
| | - Leonard Angka
- Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L6, Canada
| | - Zaid Taha
- Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L6, Canada
- Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1H 8M5, Canada
| | - Iris Teo
- Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L6, Canada
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1H 8M5, Canada
| | - Siddarth Singh
- Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L6, Canada
| | - Rameen Jamil
- Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L6, Canada
| | - Ricardo Marius
- Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L6, Canada
- Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1H 8M5, Canada
| | - Nikolas Martin
- Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L6, Canada
| | - Taylor Jamieson
- Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L6, Canada
- Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1H 8M5, Canada
| | - Taha Azad
- Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L6, Canada
- Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1H 8M5, Canada
- Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC J1E 4K8, Canada
- Centre de Recherche du CHUS, Sherbrooke, QC J1H 5N4, Canada
| | - Jean-Simon Diallo
- Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L6, Canada
- Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1H 8M5, Canada
| | - Carolina S. Ilkow
- Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L6, Canada
- Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1H 8M5, Canada
| | - John C. Bell
- Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L6, Canada
- Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1H 8M5, Canada
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Alanine-based spacers promote an efficient antigen processing and presentation in neoantigen polypeptide vaccines. Cancer Immunol Immunother 2023:10.1007/s00262-023-03409-3. [PMID: 36820900 DOI: 10.1007/s00262-023-03409-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2022] [Accepted: 02/12/2023] [Indexed: 02/24/2023]
Abstract
Neoantigens are tumor-specific antigens that are mostly particular for each patient. Since the immune system is able to mount a specific immune response against these neoantigens, they are a promising tool for the development of therapeutic personalized cancer vaccines. Neoantigens must be presented to T cells by antigen presenting cells (APC) in the context of MHC-I or MHC-II molecules. Therefore, the strategy of vaccine delivery may have a major impact on the magnitude and quality of T cell responses. Neoantigen-based vaccines are frequently administered as a pool of individual synthetic peptides that induce mainly CD4+ T cell responses. MHC-I-mediated presentation and the elicitation of CD8+ T cell responses may be improved using DNA or RNA sequences that code for a unique long polypeptide that concatenates the different neoantigens spaced by linker sequences. When administered this way, the selection of the spacer between neoantigens is of special interest, as it might influence the processing and presentation of the right peptides by APCs. Here, we evaluate the impact of such linker regions on the MHC-I-dependent antigen presentation using an in vitro assay that assesses the MHC-I presentation of SIINFEKL, a H-2 Kb-restricted OVA peptide. Our results show that spacers used to generate epitope concatenates have a large impact on the efficiency of neoantigen processing and presentation by MHC-I molecules; in contrast, the peptide position and the flanking regions have a minimal impact. Moreover, linkers based on alanine residues promote a more efficient peptide presentation than the commonly used GGGS linker.
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Yousaf M, Ismail S, Ullah A, Bibi S. Immuno-informatics profiling of monkeypox virus cell surface binding protein for designing a next generation multi-valent peptide-based vaccine. Front Immunol 2022; 13:1035924. [PMID: 36405737 PMCID: PMC9668073 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.1035924] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2022] [Accepted: 10/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/07/2022] Open
Abstract
Monkeypox is a viral etiological agent with hallmarks analogous to those observed in smallpox cases in the past. The ongoing outbreak of Monkeypox viral infection is becoming a global health problem. Multi-valent peptide based next generation vaccines provides us a promising solution to combat these emerging infectious diseases by eliciting cell-mediated and humoral immune response. Considering the success rate of subtractive proteomics pipeline and reverse vaccinology approach, in this study, we have developed a novel, next-generation, multi-valent, in silico peptide based vaccine construct by employing cell surface binding protein. After analyzing physiochemical and biological properties of the selected target, the protein was subjected to B cell derived T cell epitope mapping. Iterative scrutinization lead to the identification of two highly antigenic, virulent, non-allergic, non-toxic, water soluble, and Interferon-gamma inducer epitopes i.e. HYITENYRN and TTSPVRENY. We estimated that the shortlisted epitopes for vaccine construction, roughly correspond to 99.74% of the world’s population. UK, Finland and Sweden had the highest overall population coverage at 100% which is followed by Austria (99.99%), Germany (99.99%), France (99.98%), Poland (99.96), Croatia (99.93), Czech Republic (99.87%), Belgium (99.87), Italy (99.86%), China (97.83%), India (97.35%) and Pakistan (97.13%). The designed vaccine construct comprises of 150 amino acids with a molecular weight of 16.97242 kDa. Molecular docking studies of the modelled MEMPV (Multi-epitope Monkeypox Vaccine) with MHC I (PDB ID: 1I1Y), MHC II (PDB ID: 1KG0), and other immune mediators i.e. toll like receptors TLR3 (PDB ID: 2A0Z), and TLR4 (PDB ID: 4G8A) revealed strong binding affinity with immune receptors. Host immune simulation results predicted that the designed vaccine has strong potency to induce immune responses against target pathogen in the form of cellular and antibody-dependent immunity. Our findings suggest that the hypothesized vaccine candidate can be utilized as a potential therapeutic against Monkeypox however experimental study is required to validate the results and safe immunogenicity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maha Yousaf
- Department of Biosciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan
- *Correspondence: Maha Yousaf, ; Shabana Bibi,
| | - Saba Ismail
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Medical Sciences, Rawalpindi, Pakistan
| | - Asad Ullah
- Department of Health and Biological Sciences, Abasyn University, Peshawar, Pakistan
| | - Shabana Bibi
- Department of Biosciences, Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University, Islamabad, Pakistan
- Yunnan Herbal Laboratory, College of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming, China
- *Correspondence: Maha Yousaf, ; Shabana Bibi,
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Althurwi HN, Alharthy KM, Albaqami FF, Altharawi A, Javed MR, Muhseen ZT, Tahir ul Qamar M. mRNA-Based Vaccine Designing against Epstein-Barr Virus to Induce an Immune Response Using Immunoinformatic and Molecular Modelling Approaches. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2022; 19:13054. [PMID: 36293632 PMCID: PMC9602923 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph192013054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2022] [Revised: 10/03/2022] [Accepted: 10/07/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) is a human pathogen that has a morbidity rate of 90% in adults worldwide. Infectious mononucleosis is caused by EBV replication in B cells and epithelial cells of the host. EBV has also been related to autoimmune illnesses, including multiple sclerosis and cancers like nasopharyngeal carcinomas and Burkitt's lymphoma. Currently, no effective medications or vaccinations are available to treat or prevent EBV infection. Thus, the current study focuses on a bioinformatics approach to design an mRNA-based multi-epitope (MEV) vaccine to prevent EBV infections. For this purpose, we selected six antigenic proteins from the EBV proteome based on their role in pathogenicity to predict, extract, and analyze T and B cell epitopes using immunoinformatics tools. The epitopes were directed through filtering parameters including allergenicity, toxicity, antigenicity, solubility, and immunogenicity assessment, and finally, the most potent epitopes able to induce T and B cell immune response were selected. In silico molecular docking of prioritized T cell peptides with respective Human Leukocytes Antigens molecules, were carried out to evaluate the individual peptide's binding affinity. Six CTL, four HTL, and ten linear B cell epitopes fulfilled the set parameters and were selected for MEV-based mRNA vaccine. The prioritized epitopes were joined using suitable linkers to improve epitope presentation. The immune simulation results affirmed the designed vaccine's capacity to elicit a proper immune response. The MEV-based mRNA vaccine constructed in this study offers a promising choice for a potent vaccine against EBV.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hassan N. Althurwi
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj 11942, Saudi Arabia
| | - Khalid M. Alharthy
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj 11942, Saudi Arabia
| | - Faisal F. Albaqami
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj 11942, Saudi Arabia
| | - Ali Altharawi
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj 11942, Saudi Arabia
| | - Muhammad Rizwan Javed
- Department of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, Government College University Faisalabad (GCUF), Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan
| | - Ziyad Tariq Muhseen
- Department of Pharmacy, Al-Mustaqbal University College, Hillah 51001, Babylon, Iraq
| | - Muhammad Tahir ul Qamar
- Department of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, Government College University Faisalabad (GCUF), Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan
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Palatnik-de-Sousa I, Wallace ZS, Cavalcante SC, Ribeiro MPF, Silva JABM, Cavalcante RC, Scheuermann RH, Palatnik-de-Sousa CB. A novel vaccine based on SARS-CoV-2 CD4 + and CD8 + T cell conserved epitopes from variants Alpha to Omicron. Sci Rep 2022; 12:16731. [PMID: 36202985 PMCID: PMC9537284 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-21207-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2022] [Accepted: 09/23/2022] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
COVID-19 caused, as of September, 1rst, 2022, 599,825,400 confirmed cases, including 6,469,458 deaths. Currently used vaccines reduced severity and mortality but not virus transmission or reinfection by different strains. They are based on the Spike protein of the Wuhan reference virus, which although highly antigenic suffered many mutations in SARS-CoV-2 variants, escaping vaccine-generated immune responses. Multiepitope vaccines based on 100% conserved epitopes of multiple proteins of all SARS-CoV-2 variants, rather than a single highly mutating antigen, could offer more long-lasting protection. In this study, a multiepitope multivariant vaccine was designed using immunoinformatics and in silico approaches. It is composed of highly promiscuous and strong HLA binding CD4+ and CD8+ T cell epitopes of the S, M, N, E, ORF1ab, ORF 6 and ORF8 proteins. Based on the analysis of one genome per WHO clade, the epitopes were 100% conserved among the Wuhan-Hu1, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Omicron, Mµ, Zeta, Lambda and R1 variants. An extended epitope-conservancy analysis performed using GISAID metadata of 3,630,666 SARS-CoV-2 genomes of these variants and the additional genomes of the Epsilon, Lota, Theta, Eta, Kappa and GH490 R clades, confirmed the high conservancy of the epitopes. All but one of the CD4 peptides showed a level of conservation greater than 97% among all genomes. All but one of the CD8 epitopes showed a level of conservation greater than 96% among all genomes, with the vast majority greater than 99%. A multiepitope and multivariant recombinant vaccine was designed and it was stable, mildly hydrophobic and non-toxic. The vaccine has good molecular docking with TLR4 and promoted, without adjuvant, strong B and Th1 memory immune responses and secretion of high levels of IL-2, IFN-γ, lower levels of IL-12, TGF-β and IL-10, and no IL-6. Experimental in vivo studies should validate the vaccine's further use as preventive tool with cross-protective properties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Iam Palatnik-de-Sousa
- Department of Electrical Engeneering, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Zachary S Wallace
- Department of Informatics, J. Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA
| | - Stephany Christiny Cavalcante
- Department of General Microbiology, Institute of Microbiology Paulo de Góes, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Maria Paula Fonseca Ribeiro
- Department of General Microbiology, Institute of Microbiology Paulo de Góes, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - João Antônio Barbosa Martins Silva
- Department of General Microbiology, Institute of Microbiology Paulo de Góes, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Rafael Ciro Cavalcante
- Department of Pharmacy, Campus Professor Antônio Garcia Filho, Federal University of Sergipe, Lagarto, Sergipe, Brazil
| | - Richard H Scheuermann
- Department of Informatics, J. Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA
- Department of Pathology, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA
- Division of Vaccine Discovery, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, La Jolla, CA, USA
- Global Virus Network, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Clarisa Beatriz Palatnik-de-Sousa
- Department of General Microbiology, Institute of Microbiology Paulo de Góes, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
- Institute for Immunological Investigation (III), INCT, National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), São Paulo, Brazil.
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Yousaf M, Ullah A, Sarosh N, Abbasi SW, Ismail S, Bibi S, Hasan MM, Albadrani GM, Talaat Nouh NA, Abdulhakim JA, Abdel-Daim MM, Bin Emran T. Design of Multi-Epitope Vaccine for Staphylococcus saprophyticus: Pan-Genome and Reverse Vaccinology Approach. Vaccines (Basel) 2022; 10:vaccines10081192. [PMID: 36016080 PMCID: PMC9414393 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines10081192] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2022] [Revised: 07/20/2022] [Accepted: 07/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Staphylococcus saprophyticus is a Gram-positive coccus responsible for the occurrence of cystitis in sexually active, young females. While effective antibiotics against this organism exist, resistant strains are on the rise. Therefore, prevention via vaccines appears to be a viable solution to address this problem. In comparison to traditional techniques of vaccine design, computationally aided vaccine development demonstrates marked specificity, efficiency, stability, and safety. In the present study, a novel, multi-epitope vaccine construct was developed against S. saprophyticus by targeting fully sequenced proteomes of its five different strains, which were examined using a pangenome and subtractive proteomic strategy to characterize prospective vaccination targets. The three immunogenic vaccine targets which were utilized to map the probable immune epitopes were verified by annotating the entire proteome. The predicted epitopes were further screened on the basis of antigenicity, allergenicity, water solubility, toxicity, virulence, and binding affinity towards the DRB*0101 allele, resulting in 11 potential epitopes, i.e., DLKKQKEKL, NKDLKKQKE, QDKLKDKSD, NVMDNKDLE, TSGTPDSQA, NANSDGSSS, GSDSSSSNN, DSSSSNNDS, DSSSSDRNN, SSSDRNNGD, and SSDDKSKDS. All these epitopes have the efficacy to cover 99.74% of populations globally. Finally, shortlisted epitopes were joined together with linkers and three different adjuvants to find the most stable and immunogenic vaccine construct. The top-ranked vaccine construct was further scrutinized on the basis of its physicochemical characterization and immunological profile. The non-allergenic and antigenic features of modeled vaccine constructs were initially validated and then subjected to docking with immune receptor major histocompatibility complex I and II (MHC-I and II), resulting in strong contact. In silico cloning validations yielded a codon adaptation index (CAI) value of 1 and an ideal percentage of GC contents (46.717%), indicating a putative expression of the vaccine in E. coli. Furthermore, immune simulation demonstrated that, after injecting the proposed MEVC, powerful antibodies were produced, resulting in the sharpest peaks of IgM + IgG formation (>11,500) within 5 to 15 days. Experimental testing against S. saprophyticus can evaluate the safety and efficacy of these prophylactic vaccination designs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maha Yousaf
- Department of Biosciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Islamabad 45550, Pakistan; (M.Y.); (N.S.)
| | - Asad Ullah
- Department of Health and Biological Sciences, Abasyn University, Peshawar 25000, Pakistan;
| | - Nida Sarosh
- Department of Biosciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Islamabad 45550, Pakistan; (M.Y.); (N.S.)
| | - Sumra Wajid Abbasi
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Medical Sciences, Rawalpindi 46000, Pakistan;
| | - Saba Ismail
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Medical Sciences, Rawalpindi 46000, Pakistan;
- Correspondence: (S.I.); (S.B.)
| | - Shabana Bibi
- Department of Biosciences, Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
- Yunnan Herbal Laboratory, College of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China
- Correspondence: (S.I.); (S.B.)
| | - Mohammad Mehedi Hasan
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Life Science, Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University, Tangail 1902, Bangladesh;
| | - Ghadeer M. Albadrani
- Department of Biology, College of Science, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, P.O. Box 84428, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia;
| | - Nehal Ahmed Talaat Nouh
- Department of Microbiology, Medicine Program, Batterjee Medical College, P.O. Box 6231, Jeddah 21442, Saudi Arabia;
- Inpatient Pharmacy, Mansoura University Hospitals, Mansoura 35516, Egypt
| | - Jawaher A. Abdulhakim
- Medical Laboratory Department, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Taibah University, Yanbu 46522, Saudi Arabia;
| | - Mohamed M. Abdel-Daim
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pharmacy Program, Batterjee Medical College, P.O. Box 6231, Jeddah 21442, Saudi Arabia;
- Pharmacology Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia 41522, Egypt
| | - Talha Bin Emran
- Department of Pharmacy, BGC Trust University Bangladesh, Chittagong 4381, Bangladesh;
- Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Daffodil International University, Dhaka 1207, Bangladesh
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Peng S, Xing D, Ferrall L, Tsai YC, Roden RBS, Hung CF, Wu TC. Development of a Spontaneous HPV16 E6/E7-Expressing Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma in HLA-A2 Transgenic Mice. mBio 2022; 13:e0325221. [PMID: 35089069 PMCID: PMC8725581 DOI: 10.1128/mbio.03252-21] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2021] [Accepted: 11/23/2021] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a growing global health problem. HPV16 has been attributed to a majority of HPV-associated HNSCCs. In order to test candidate immunotherapies, we developed a spontaneous HPV16-driven HNSCC model in HLA-A2 (AAD) transgenic mice. We sought to eliminate the confounding effects of dominant HPV antigen presentation through murine major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I) via epitope mutagenesis (without compromising tumorigenicity). We generated HPV16 E6(R55K)(delK75) and E7(N53S) expression constructs with mutations in known dominant H-2Db epitopes and characterized their presentation through murine and human MHC-I molecules using in vitro and in vivo activation of HPV16 E6/E7 antigen-specific CD8+ T cells. In addition, we tested the ability of E6(R55K)(delK75) and E7(N53S) for oncogenicity. The mutated E7(N53S) abolished the presentation of murine H-2Db-restricted HPV16 E7 peptide (i.e., amino acids [aa] 49 to 57) cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitope and resulted in HLA-A2-restricted presentation of the HPV16 E7 (aa 11 to 20)-specific CTL epitope. The mutated E6(R55K)(delK75) abolished the activation of murine MHC-I-restricted E6-specific CD8+ T cell-mediated immune responses in C57BL/6 mice. In addition, the vaccination led to the activation of human HLA-A2-restricted E6-specific CD8+ T cell-mediated immune responses in HLA-A2 (AAD) transgenic mice. Injection of DNA plasmids encoding LucE7(N53S)E6(R55K)(delK75), AKT, c-Myc, and SB100 followed by electroporation results in development of squamous cell carcinoma in the oral/pharyngeal cavity of all of the HLA-A2 (AAD) transgenic mice (5/5), with 2/5 tumor-bearing mice developing metastatic carcinoma in the neck lymph nodes. IMPORTANCE Our data indicate that mutated HPV16 E6(R55K)(delK75) and mutated HPV16 E7(N53S) DNA abolishes the presentation of HPV16 E6 and E7 through murine MHC-I and results in their presentation through human HLA-A2 molecules. Additionally, the mutated HPV16 E6 and E7 remain oncogenic. Our approach is potentially applicable to different human MHC-I transgenic mice for the identification of human MHC-I restricted HPV16 E6/E7-specific CTL epitopes as well as the generation of spontaneous HPV E6/E7-expressing oral/pharyngeal carcinoma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shiwen Peng
- Department of Pathology, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - Deyin Xing
- Department of Pathology, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - Louise Ferrall
- Department of Pathology, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - Ya-Chea Tsai
- Department of Pathology, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - Richard B. S. Roden
- Department of Pathology, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- Department of Oncology, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - Chien-Fu Hung
- Department of Pathology, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- Department of Oncology, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - T.-C. Wu
- Department of Pathology, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- Department of Oncology, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
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9
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Sami SA, Marma KKS, Mahmud S, Khan MAN, Albogami S, El-Shehawi AM, Rakib A, Chakraborty A, Mohiuddin M, Dhama K, Uddin MMN, Hossain MK, Tallei TE, Emran TB. Designing of a Multi-epitope Vaccine against the Structural Proteins of Marburg Virus Exploiting the Immunoinformatics Approach. ACS OMEGA 2021; 6:32043-32071. [PMID: 34870027 PMCID: PMC8638006 DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.1c04817] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2021] [Accepted: 11/10/2021] [Indexed: 05/08/2023]
Abstract
Marburg virus disease (MVD) caused by the Marburg virus (MARV) generally appears with flu-like symptoms and leads to severe hemorrhagic fever. It spreads via direct contact with infected individuals or animals. Despite being considered to be less threatening in terms of appearances and the number of infected patients, the high fatality rate of this pathogenic virus is a major concern. Until now, no vaccine has been developed to combat this deadly virus. Therefore, vaccination for this virus is necessary to reduce its mortality. Our current investigation focuses on the design and formulation of a multi-epitope vaccine based on the structural proteins of MARV employing immunoinformatics approaches. The screening of potential T-cell and B-cell epitopes from the seven structural proteins of MARV was carried out through specific selection parameters. Afterward, we compiled the shortlisted epitopes by attaching them to an appropriate adjuvant and linkers. Population coverage analysis, conservancy analysis, and MHC cluster analysis of the shortlisted epitopes were satisfactory. Importantly, physicochemical characteristics, human homology assessment, and structure validation of the vaccine construct delineated convenient outcomes. We implemented disulfide bond engineering to stabilize the tertiary or quaternary interactions. Furthermore, stability and physical movements of the vaccine protein were explored using normal-mode analysis. The immune simulation study of the vaccine complexes also exhibited significant results. Additionally, the protein-protein docking and molecular dynamics simulation of the final construct exhibited a higher affinity toward toll-like receptor-4 (TLR4). From simulation trajectories, multiple descriptors, namely, root mean square deviations (rmsd), radius of gyration (Rg), root mean square fluctuations (RMSF), solvent-accessible surface area (SASA), and hydrogen bonds, have been taken into account to demonstrate the inflexible and rigid nature of receptor molecules and the constructed vaccine. Inclusively, our findings suggested the vaccine constructs' ability to regulate promising immune responses against MARV pathogenesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Saad Ahmed Sami
- Department of Pharmacy,
Faculty of Biological Sciences, University
of Chittagong, Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh
| | - Kay Kay Shain Marma
- Department of Pharmacy,
Faculty of Biological Sciences, University
of Chittagong, Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh
| | - Shafi Mahmud
- Microbiology
Laboratory, Bioinformatics Division, Department of Genetic Engineering
and Biotechnology, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi 6205, Bangladesh
| | - Md. Asif Nadim Khan
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular
Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Chittagong, Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh
| | - Sarah Albogami
- Department
of Biotechnology, College of Science, Taif
University, P.O. Box 11099, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia
| | - Ahmed M. El-Shehawi
- Department
of Biotechnology, College of Science, Taif
University, P.O. Box 11099, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia
| | - Ahmed Rakib
- Department of Pharmacy,
Faculty of Biological Sciences, University
of Chittagong, Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh
| | - Agnila Chakraborty
- Department of Pharmacy,
Faculty of Biological Sciences, University
of Chittagong, Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh
| | - Mostafah Mohiuddin
- Department of Pharmacy,
Faculty of Biological Sciences, University
of Chittagong, Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh
| | - Kuldeep Dhama
- Division of Pathology, ICAR-Indian Veterinary
Research Institute, Izatnagar, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh 243122, India
| | - Mir Muhammad Nasir Uddin
- Department of Pharmacy,
Faculty of Biological Sciences, University
of Chittagong, Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh
| | - Mohammed Kamrul Hossain
- Department of Pharmacy,
Faculty of Biological Sciences, University
of Chittagong, Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh
| | - Trina Ekawati Tallei
- Department of Biology,
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Sam Ratulangi University, Manado, North Sulawesi 95115, Indonesia
| | - Talha Bin Emran
- Department of Pharmacy, BGC Trust University Bangladesh, Chittagong 4381, Bangladesh
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10
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Li L, Zhang X, Wang X, Kim SW, Herndon JM, Becker-Hapak MK, Carreno BM, Myers NB, Sturmoski MA, McLellan MD, Miller CA, Johanns TM, Tan BR, Dunn GP, Fleming TP, Hansen TH, Goedegebuure SP, Gillanders WE. Optimized polyepitope neoantigen DNA vaccines elicit neoantigen-specific immune responses in preclinical models and in clinical translation. Genome Med 2021; 13:56. [PMID: 33879241 PMCID: PMC8059244 DOI: 10.1186/s13073-021-00872-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2019] [Accepted: 03/17/2021] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Preclinical studies and early clinical trials have shown that targeting cancer neoantigens is a promising approach towards the development of personalized cancer immunotherapies. DNA vaccines can be rapidly and efficiently manufactured and can integrate multiple neoantigens simultaneously. We therefore sought to optimize the design of polyepitope DNA vaccines and test optimized polyepitope neoantigen DNA vaccines in preclinical models and in clinical translation. METHODS We developed and optimized a DNA vaccine platform to target multiple neoantigens. The polyepitope DNA vaccine platform was first optimized using model antigens in vitro and in vivo. We then identified neoantigens in preclinical breast cancer models through genome sequencing and in silico neoantigen prediction pipelines. Optimized polyepitope neoantigen DNA vaccines specific for the murine breast tumor E0771 and 4T1 were designed and their immunogenicity was tested in vivo. We also tested an optimized polyepitope neoantigen DNA vaccine in a patient with metastatic pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor. RESULTS Our data support an optimized polyepitope neoantigen DNA vaccine design encoding long (≥20-mer) epitopes with a mutant form of ubiquitin (Ubmut) fused to the N-terminus for antigen processing and presentation. Optimized polyepitope neoantigen DNA vaccines were immunogenic and generated robust neoantigen-specific immune responses in mice. The magnitude of immune responses generated by optimized polyepitope neoantigen DNA vaccines was similar to that of synthetic long peptide vaccines specific for the same neoantigens. When combined with immune checkpoint blockade therapy, optimized polyepitope neoantigen DNA vaccines were capable of inducing antitumor immunity in preclinical models. Immune monitoring data suggest that optimized polyepitope neoantigen DNA vaccines are capable of inducing neoantigen-specific T cell responses in a patient with metastatic pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor. CONCLUSIONS We have developed and optimized a novel polyepitope neoantigen DNA vaccine platform that can target multiple neoantigens and induce antitumor immune responses in preclinical models and neoantigen-specific responses in clinical translation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lijin Li
- Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 South Euclid Avenue, St Louis, MO, 63110, USA
| | - Xiuli Zhang
- Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 South Euclid Avenue, St Louis, MO, 63110, USA
| | - Xiaoli Wang
- Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA
| | - Samuel W Kim
- Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 South Euclid Avenue, St Louis, MO, 63110, USA
| | - John M Herndon
- Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 South Euclid Avenue, St Louis, MO, 63110, USA
| | | | - Beatriz M Carreno
- Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA
- Present Address: Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Center for Cellular Immunotherapies, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Nancy B Myers
- Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 South Euclid Avenue, St Louis, MO, 63110, USA
| | - Mark A Sturmoski
- Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 South Euclid Avenue, St Louis, MO, 63110, USA
| | - Michael D McLellan
- McDonnell Genome Institute, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA
| | - Christopher A Miller
- Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA
- McDonnell Genome Institute, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA
- The Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA
| | - Tanner M Johanns
- Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA
| | - Benjamin R Tan
- Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA
| | - Gavin P Dunn
- Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA
| | - Timothy P Fleming
- Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 South Euclid Avenue, St Louis, MO, 63110, USA
- The Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA
- Present Address: Norton Thoracic Institute, St. Joseph Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ, USA
| | - Ted H Hansen
- Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA
| | - S Peter Goedegebuure
- Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 South Euclid Avenue, St Louis, MO, 63110, USA
- The Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA
| | - William E Gillanders
- Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 South Euclid Avenue, St Louis, MO, 63110, USA.
- The Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA.
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11
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Abstract
MOTIVATION Conceptually, epitope-based vaccine design poses two distinct problems: (i) selecting the best epitopes to elicit the strongest possible immune response and (ii) arranging and linking them through short spacer sequences to string-of-beads vaccines, so that their recovery likelihood during antigen processing is maximized. Current state-of-the-art approaches solve this design problem sequentially. Consequently, such approaches are unable to capture the inter-dependencies between the two design steps, usually emphasizing theoretical immunogenicity over correct vaccine processing, thus resulting in vaccines with less effective immunogenicity in vivo. RESULTS In this work, we present a computational approach based on linear programming, called JessEV, that solves both design steps simultaneously, allowing to weigh the selection of a set of epitopes that have great immunogenic potential against their assembly into a string-of-beads construct that provides a high chance of recovery. We conducted Monte Carlo cleavage simulations to show that a fixed set of epitopes often cannot be assembled adequately, whereas selecting epitopes to accommodate proper cleavage requirements substantially improves their recovery probability and thus the effective immunogenicity, pathogen and population coverage of the resulting vaccines by at least 2-fold. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION The software and the data analyzed are available at https://github.com/SchubertLab/JessEV. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emilio Dorigatti
- Faculty of Mathematics Informatics and Statistics, Ludwig Maximilian Universität, München 80333, Germany.,Institute of Computational Biology, Helmholtz Zentrum München-German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg 85764, Germany
| | - Benjamin Schubert
- Institute of Computational Biology, Helmholtz Zentrum München-German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg 85764, Germany.,Department of Mathematics, Technical University of Munich, Garching bei München 85748, Germany
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12
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Sanches RCO, Tiwari S, Ferreira LCG, Oliveira FM, Lopes MD, Passos MJF, Maia EHB, Taranto AG, Kato R, Azevedo VAC, Lopes DO. Immunoinformatics Design of Multi-Epitope Peptide-Based Vaccine Against Schistosoma mansoni Using Transmembrane Proteins as a Target. Front Immunol 2021; 12:621706. [PMID: 33737928 PMCID: PMC7961083 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.621706] [Citation(s) in RCA: 69] [Impact Index Per Article: 23.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2020] [Accepted: 02/08/2021] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Schistosomiasis remains a serious health issue nowadays for an estimated one billion people in 79 countries around the world. Great efforts have been made to identify good vaccine candidates during the last decades, but only three molecules reached clinical trials so far. The reverse vaccinology approach has become an attractive option for vaccine design, especially regarding parasites like Schistosoma spp. that present limitations for culture maintenance. This strategy also has prompted the construction of multi-epitope based vaccines, with great immunological foreseen properties as well as being less prone to contamination, autoimmunity, and allergenic responses. Therefore, in this study we applied a robust immunoinformatics approach, targeting S. mansoni transmembrane proteins, in order to construct a chimeric antigen. Initially, the search for all hypothetical transmembrane proteins in GeneDB provided a total of 584 sequences. Using the PSORT II and CCTOP servers we reduced this to 37 plasma membrane proteins, from which extracellular domains were used for epitope prediction. Nineteen common MHC-I and MHC-II binding epitopes, from eight proteins, comprised the final multi-epitope construct, along with suitable adjuvants. The final chimeric multi-epitope vaccine was predicted as prone to induce B-cell and IFN-γ based immunity, as well as presented itself as stable and non-allergenic molecule. Finally, molecular docking and molecular dynamics foresee stable interactions between the putative antigen and the immune receptor TLR 4. Our results indicate that the multi-epitope vaccine might stimulate humoral and cellular immune responses and could be a potential vaccine candidate against schistosomiasis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rodrigo C. O. Sanches
- Laboratório de Biologia Molecular, Universidade Federal de São João del-Rei, Divinópolis, Brazil
| | - Sandeep Tiwari
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Bioinformática, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil
| | - Laís C. G. Ferreira
- Laboratório de Biologia Molecular, Universidade Federal de São João del-Rei, Divinópolis, Brazil
| | - Flávio M. Oliveira
- Laboratório de Biologia Molecular, Universidade Federal de São João del-Rei, Divinópolis, Brazil
| | - Marcelo D. Lopes
- Laboratório de Biologia Molecular, Universidade Federal de São João del-Rei, Divinópolis, Brazil
| | - Maria J. F. Passos
- Laboratório de Biologia Molecular, Universidade Federal de São João del-Rei, Divinópolis, Brazil
| | - Eduardo H. B. Maia
- Laboratório de Química Farmacêutica Medicinal, Universidade Federal de São João del-Rei, Divinópolis, Brazil
- Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica de Minas Gerais (CEFET-MG), Divinópolis, Brazil
| | - Alex G. Taranto
- Laboratório de Química Farmacêutica Medicinal, Universidade Federal de São João del-Rei, Divinópolis, Brazil
| | - Rodrigo Kato
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Bioinformática, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil
| | - Vasco A. C. Azevedo
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Bioinformática, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil
| | - Debora O. Lopes
- Laboratório de Biologia Molecular, Universidade Federal de São João del-Rei, Divinópolis, Brazil
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13
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Namazi F, Davoodi S, Bolhassani A. Comparison of the efficacy of HIV-1 Nef-Tat-Gp160-p24 polyepitope vaccine candidate with Nef protein in different immunization strategies. Curr Drug Deliv 2021; 19:142-156. [PMID: 33655833 DOI: 10.2174/1567201818666210224101144] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2020] [Revised: 12/23/2020] [Accepted: 01/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES One of the promising strategies for effective HIV-1 vaccine design involves finding the polyepitope immunogens using T cell epitopes. METHODS Herein, an HIV-1 polyepitope construct (i.e., Nef-Tat-Gp160-P24) comprising of several epitopes from Nef, Tat, Gp160, and P24 proteins was designed. To improve its immunogenicity in BALB/c mice, cell-penetrating peptides (HR9 & MPG for DNA delivery, and LDP-NLS & CyLoP-1 for protein transfer), Montanide adjuvant, and heterologous DNA prime/polypeptide boost strategy were used. To compare the immunogenicity, Nef was utilized as a vaccine candidate. The levels of total IgG and its subclasses, cytokines, and Granzyme B were assessed using ELISA. RESULTS Immunological studies showed that heterologous prime-boost regimens for both antigens could considerably augment the levels of IgG2a, IgG2b, IFN-γ, and Granzyme B directed toward Th1 and CTL immune responses in comparison with homologous prime-boost strategies. The levels of IFN-γ, IL-10, total IgG, IgG1, and IgG2b were drastically higher in groups immunized with Nef-Tat-Gp160-P24 in heterologous prime-boost regimens than those in groups immunized with Nef. CONCLUSIONS The use of the Nef-Tat-Gp160-P24 polyepitope immunogen in heterologous prime-boost strategy could generate the mixture of Th1 and Th2 responses directed further toward Th1 response as a hopeful method for improvement of HIV-1 vaccine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fatemeh Namazi
- Department of Biology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran. Iran
| | - Saba Davoodi
- Department of Biology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran. Iran
| | - Azam Bolhassani
- Department of Hepatitis and AIDS, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran. Iran
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14
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Ma Y, Tang K, Zhang Y, Zhang C, Cheng L, Zhang F, Zhuang R, Jin B, Zhang Y. Protective CD8 + T-cell response against Hantaan virus infection induced by immunization with designed linear multi-epitope peptides in HLA-A2.1/K b transgenic mice. Virol J 2020; 17:146. [PMID: 33028368 PMCID: PMC7538842 DOI: 10.1186/s12985-020-01421-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2020] [Accepted: 09/28/2020] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Background An effective vaccine that prevents disease caused by hantaviruses is a global public health priority, but up to now, no vaccine has been approved for worldwide use. Therefore, novel vaccines with high prophylaxis efficacy are urgently needed. Methods Herein, we designed and synthesized Hantaan virus (HTNV) linear multi-epitope peptide consisting of HLA-A*02-restricted HTNV cytotoxic T cell (CTL) epitope and pan HLA-DR-binding epitope (PADRE), and evaluated the immunogenicity, as well as effectiveness, of multi-epitope peptides in HLA-A2.1/Kb transgenic mice with interferon (IFN)-γ enzyme-linked immunospot assay, cytotoxic mediator detection, proliferation assay and HTNV-challenge test. Results The results showed that a much higher frequency of specific IFN-γ-secreting CTLs, high levels of granzyme B production, and a strong proliferation capacity of specific CTLs were observed in splenocytes of mice immunized with multi-epitope peptide than in those of a single CTL epitope. Moreover, pre-immunization of multi-epitope peptide could reduce the levels of HTNV RNA loads in the liver, spleen and kidneys of mice, indicating that specific CTL responses induced by multi-epitope peptide could reduce HTNV RNA loads in vivo. Conclusions This study may provide an important foundation for the development of novel peptide vaccines for HTNV prophylaxis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ying Ma
- Department of Immunology, The Fourth Military Medical University, 169 Changle West Road, Xi'an, 710032, China.
| | - Kang Tang
- Department of Immunology, The Fourth Military Medical University, 169 Changle West Road, Xi'an, 710032, China
| | - Yusi Zhang
- Department of Immunology, The Fourth Military Medical University, 169 Changle West Road, Xi'an, 710032, China
| | - Chunmei Zhang
- Department of Immunology, The Fourth Military Medical University, 169 Changle West Road, Xi'an, 710032, China
| | - Linfeng Cheng
- Department of Microbiology, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, 710032, China
| | - Fanglin Zhang
- Department of Microbiology, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, 710032, China
| | - Ran Zhuang
- Department of Immunology, The Fourth Military Medical University, 169 Changle West Road, Xi'an, 710032, China
| | - Boquan Jin
- Department of Immunology, The Fourth Military Medical University, 169 Changle West Road, Xi'an, 710032, China
| | - Yun Zhang
- Department of Immunology, The Fourth Military Medical University, 169 Changle West Road, Xi'an, 710032, China.
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15
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Zhao X, Yang F, Mariz F, Osen W, Bolchi A, Ottonello S, Müller M. Combined prophylactic and therapeutic immune responses against human papillomaviruses induced by a thioredoxin-based L2-E7 nanoparticle vaccine. PLoS Pathog 2020; 16:e1008827. [PMID: 32886721 PMCID: PMC7498061 DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1008827] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2020] [Revised: 09/17/2020] [Accepted: 07/21/2020] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Global burden of cervical cancer, the most common cause of mortality caused by human papillomavirus (HPV), is expected to increase during the next decade, mainly because current alternatives for HPV vaccination and cervical cancer screening programs are costly to be established in low-and-middle income countries. Recently, we described the development of the broadly protective, thermostable vaccine antigen Trx-8mer-OVX313 based on the insertion of eight different minor capsid protein L2 neutralization epitopes into a thioredoxin scaffold from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrococcus furiosus and conversion of the resulting antigen into a nanoparticle format (median radius ~9 nm) upon fusion with the heptamerizing OVX313 module. Here we evaluated whether the engineered thioredoxin scaffold, in addition to humoral immune responses, can induce CD8+ T-cell responses upon incorporation of MHC-I-restricted epitopes. By systematically examining the contribution of individual antigen modules, we demonstrated that B-cell and T-cell epitopes can be combined into a single antigen construct without compromising either immunogenicity. While CD8+ T-cell epitopes had no influence on B-cell responses, the L2 polytope (8mer) and OVX313-mediated heptamerization of the final antigen significantly increased CD8+ T-cell responses. In a proof-of-concept experiment, we found that vaccinated mice remained tumor-free even after two consecutive tumor challenges, while unvaccinated mice developed tumors. A cost-effective, broadly protective vaccine with both prophylactic and therapeutic properties represents a promising option to overcome the challenges associated with prevention and treatment of HPV-caused diseases. Currently, there are three licensed prophylactic vaccines available against HPV, but none of them shows a therapeutic effect on pre-existing infections. Thus, a prophylactic vaccine also endowed with a therapeutic activity presents application potentials to individuals regardless of their HPV-infection status. Such a dual-purpose vaccine would be particularly valuable for post-exposure prophylaxis and shields population from recurrent HPV infections. Here, we constructed a combined vaccine relying on L2- and E7-specific epitopes grafted onto the surface of a hyper-stable thioredoxin scaffold. The resulting antigen was converted into a nanoparticle format with the use of a heptamerization domain. Our data document that the modular design of the antigen allows combination of B-cell and T-cell epitopes in one antigen without compromising either’s immunogenicity. The antigen retains its ability to provide broad protection against different HPV types but also presents strong therapeutic effects in a mouse tumor model. Therefore, the vaccine is potentially capable of resolving productive infection as well as HPV-related malignancies, and thus benefitting both uninfected and already infected individuals. Moreover, our vaccine utilizes E. coli as protein producer and distribution does not require cold-chain, which reduces costs making it applicable to less-affluent countries.
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MESH Headings
- Animals
- Antigens, Neoplasm/chemistry
- Antigens, Neoplasm/pharmacology
- Antigens, Viral/chemistry
- Antigens, Viral/pharmacology
- Archaeal Proteins/chemistry
- Archaeal Proteins/pharmacology
- CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes/immunology
- CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes/pathology
- Cancer Vaccines/chemistry
- Cancer Vaccines/pharmacology
- Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte/chemistry
- Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte/pharmacology
- Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte/chemistry
- Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte/pharmacology
- Female
- Humans
- Immunity, Cellular/drug effects
- Mice
- Mice, Inbred BALB C
- Nanoparticles/chemistry
- Nanoparticles/therapeutic use
- Papillomaviridae/chemistry
- Papillomaviridae/immunology
- Papillomavirus Vaccines/chemistry
- Papillomavirus Vaccines/pharmacology
- Pyrococcus furiosus/chemistry
- Thioredoxins/chemistry
- Thioredoxins/pharmacology
- Uterine Cervical Neoplasms/immunology
- Uterine Cervical Neoplasms/virology
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Affiliation(s)
- Xueer Zhao
- German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Fan Yang
- German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Filipe Mariz
- German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Wolfram Osen
- German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Angelo Bolchi
- Department of Chemical Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
| | - Simone Ottonello
- Department of Chemical Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
| | - Martin Müller
- German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany
- * E-mail:
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16
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Panahi HA, Bolhassani A, Javadi G, Noormohammadi Z, Agi E. Development of multiepitope therapeutic vaccines against the most prevalent high-risk human papillomaviruses. Immunotherapy 2020; 12:459-479. [DOI: 10.2217/imt-2019-0196] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Aim: Our goal was the development of DNA- or peptide-based multiepitope vaccines targeting HPV E7, E6 and E5 oncoproteins in tumor mouse model. Materials & methods: After designing the multiepitope E7, E6 and E5 constructs from four types of high risk HPVs (16, 18, 31 & 45) using bioinformatics tools, mice vaccination was performed by different homologous and heterologous modalities in a prophylactic setting. Then, anti-tumor effects of the best prophylactic strategies were studied in a therapeutic setting. Results: In both prophylactic and therapeutic experiments, groups receiving homologous E7+E6+E5 polypeptide, and heterologous E7+E6+E5 DNA prime/polypeptide boost were successful in complete rejection of tumors. Conclusion: The designed multiepitope constructs can be considered as promising candidates to develop effective therapeutic HPV vaccines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heidar Ali Panahi
- Department of Hepatitis & AIDS, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
- Department of Biology, School of Basic Sciences, Science & Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Azam Bolhassani
- Department of Hepatitis & AIDS, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Gholamreza Javadi
- Department of Biology, School of Basic Sciences, Science & Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Zahra Noormohammadi
- Department of Biology, School of Basic Sciences, Science & Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Elnaz Agi
- Iranian Comprehensive Hemophilia Care Center, Tehran, Iran
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17
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Zamani P, Teymouri M, Nikpoor AR, Navashenaq JG, Gholizadeh Z, Darban SA, Jaafari MR. Nanoliposomal vaccine containing long multi-epitope peptide E75-AE36 pulsed PADRE-induced effective immune response in mice TUBO model of breast cancer. Eur J Cancer 2020; 129:80-96. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ejca.2020.01.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2019] [Accepted: 01/20/2020] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
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18
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Measles Vaccines Designed for Enhanced CD8 + T Cell Activation. Viruses 2020; 12:v12020242. [PMID: 32098134 PMCID: PMC7077255 DOI: 10.3390/v12020242] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2019] [Revised: 02/16/2020] [Accepted: 02/19/2020] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Priming and activation of CD8+ T cell responses is crucial to achieve anti-viral and anti-tumor immunity. Live attenuated measles vaccine strains have been used successfully for immunization for decades and are currently investigated in trials of oncolytic virotherapy. The available reverse genetics systems allow for insertion of additional genes, including heterologous antigens. Here, we designed recombinant measles vaccine vectors for priming and activation of antigen-specific CD8+ T cells. For proof-of-concept, we used cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) lines specific for the melanoma-associated differentiation antigen tyrosinase-related protein-2 (TRP-2), or the model antigen chicken ovalbumin (OVA), respectively. We generated recombinant measles vaccine vectors with TRP-2 and OVA epitope cassette variants for expression of the full-length antigen or the respective immunodominant CD8+ epitope, with additional variants mediating secretion or proteasomal degradation of the epitope. We show that these recombinant measles virus vectors mediate varying levels of MHC class I (MHC-I)-restricted epitope presentation, leading to activation of cognate CTLs, as indicated by secretion of interferon-gamma (IFNγ) in vitro. Importantly, the recombinant OVA vaccines also mediate priming of naïve OT-I CD8+ T cells by dendritic cells. While all vaccine variants can prime and activate cognate T cells, IFNγ release was enhanced using a secreted epitope variant and a variant with epitope strings targeted to the proteasome. The principles presented in this study will facilitate the design of recombinant vaccines to elicit CD8+ responses against pathogens and tumor antigens.
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19
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Driscoll CB, Schuelke MR, Kottke T, Thompson JM, Wongthida P, Tonne JM, Huff AL, Miller A, Shim KG, Molan A, Wetmore C, Selby P, Samson A, Harrington K, Pandha H, Melcher A, Pulido JS, Harris R, Evgin L, Vile RG. APOBEC3B-mediated corruption of the tumor cell immunopeptidome induces heteroclitic neoepitopes for cancer immunotherapy. Nat Commun 2020; 11:790. [PMID: 32034147 PMCID: PMC7005822 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-14568-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2019] [Accepted: 01/21/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
APOBEC3B, an anti-viral cytidine deaminase which induces DNA mutations, has been implicated as a mediator of cancer evolution and therapeutic resistance. Mutational plasticity also drives generation of neoepitopes, which prime anti-tumor T cells. Here, we show that overexpression of APOBEC3B in tumors increases resistance to chemotherapy, but simultaneously heightens sensitivity to immune checkpoint blockade in a murine model of melanoma. However, in the vaccine setting, APOBEC3B-mediated mutations reproducibly generate heteroclitic neoepitopes in vaccine cells which activate de novo T cell responses. These cross react against parental, unmodified tumors and lead to a high rate of cures in both subcutaneous and intra-cranial tumor models. Heteroclitic Epitope Activated Therapy (HEAT) dispenses with the need to identify patient specific neoepitopes and tumor reactive T cells ex vivo. Thus, actively driving a high mutational load in tumor cell vaccines increases their immunogenicity to drive anti-tumor therapy in combination with immune checkpoint blockade.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher B Driscoll
- Department of Molecular Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA
- Virology and Gene Therapy Track, Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA
| | - Matthew R Schuelke
- Department of Molecular Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA
- Department of Immunology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA
- Medical Scientist Training Program, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA
| | - Timothy Kottke
- Department of Molecular Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA
| | - Jill M Thompson
- Department of Molecular Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA
| | | | - Jason M Tonne
- Department of Molecular Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA
| | - Amanda L Huff
- Department of Molecular Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA
- Virology and Gene Therapy Track, Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA
| | - Amber Miller
- Department of Molecular Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA
| | - Kevin G Shim
- Department of Molecular Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA
- Department of Immunology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA
- Medical Scientist Training Program, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA
| | - Amy Molan
- Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology & Biophysics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
| | - Cynthia Wetmore
- Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, Phoenix Children's, Phoenix, AZ, 85016, USA
| | - Peter Selby
- Leeds Institute of Cancer and Pathology (LICAP), Faculty of Medicine and Health, St James' University Hospital, University of Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK
| | - Adel Samson
- Leeds Institute of Cancer and Pathology (LICAP), Faculty of Medicine and Health, St James' University Hospital, University of Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK
| | - Kevin Harrington
- Targeted Therapy Team, Division of Radiotherapy and Imaging, The Institute of Cancer Research, London, SW3 6JB, UK
| | - Hardev Pandha
- Postgraduate Medical School, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH, UK
| | - Alan Melcher
- Translational Immunotherapy Team, Division of Radiotherapy and Imaging, The Institute of Cancer Research, London, SW3 6JB, UK
| | - Jose S Pulido
- Department of Ophthalmology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA
| | - Reuben Harris
- Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology & Biophysics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
| | - Laura Evgin
- Department of Molecular Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA
| | - Richard G Vile
- Department of Molecular Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA.
- Department of Immunology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA.
- Leeds Cancer Research UK Clinical Centre, Faculty of Medicine and Health, St James' University Hospital, University of Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK.
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20
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Tosta SFDO, Passos MS, Kato R, Salgado Á, Xavier J, Jaiswal AK, Soares SC, Azevedo V, Giovanetti M, Tiwari S, Alcantara LCJ. Multi-epitope based vaccine against yellow fever virus applying immunoinformatics approaches. J Biomol Struct Dyn 2020; 39:219-235. [PMID: 31854239 DOI: 10.1080/07391102.2019.1707120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
Yellow fever disease is considered a re-emerging major health issue which has caused recent outbreaks with a high number of deaths. Tropical countries, mainly African and South American, are the most affected by Yellow fever outbreaks. Despite the availability of an attenuated vaccine, its use is limited for some groups such as pregnant and nursing women, immunocompromised and immunosuppressed patients, elderly people >65 years, infants <6 months and patients with biological disorders like thymus disorders. In order to achieve new preventive measures, we applied immunoinformatics approaches to develop a multi-epitope-based subunit vaccine for Yellow fever virus. Different epitopes, related to humoral and cell-mediated immunity, were predicted for complete polyproteins of two Yellow fever strains (Asibi and 17 D vaccine). Those epitopes common for both strains were mapped into a set of 137 sequences of Yellow fever virus, including 77 sequences from a recent outbreak at the state of Minas Gerais, southeast Brazil. Therefore, the present work uses robust bioinformatics approaches for the identification of a multi-epitope vaccine against the Yellow fever virus. Our results indicate that the identified multi-epitope vaccine might stimulate humoral and cellular immune responses and could be a potential vaccine candidate against Yellow fever virus infection. Hence, it should be subjected to further experimental validations. Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephane Fraga de Oliveira Tosta
- Postgraduate Program in Bioinformatics, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
| | - Mariana Santana Passos
- Department of Genetics, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
| | - Rodrigo Kato
- Postgraduate Program in Bioinformatics, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
| | - Álvaro Salgado
- Postgraduate Program in Bioinformatics, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
| | - Joilson Xavier
- Department of Genetics, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
| | - Arun Kumar Jaiswal
- Postgraduate Program in Bioinformatics, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.,Department of Immunology, Microbiology and Parasitology, Institute of Biological and Natural Sciences, Federal University of Triângulo Mineiro (UFTM), Uberaba, MG, Brazil
| | - Siomar C Soares
- Department of Immunology, Microbiology and Parasitology, Institute of Biological and Natural Sciences, Federal University of Triângulo Mineiro (UFTM), Uberaba, MG, Brazil
| | - Vasco Azevedo
- Postgraduate Program in Bioinformatics, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
| | - Marta Giovanetti
- Department of Genetics, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.,Laboratório de Flavivírus, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, FIOCRUZ, Manguinhos, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Sandeep Tiwari
- Postgraduate Program in Bioinformatics, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
| | - Luiz Carlos Junior Alcantara
- Department of Genetics, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.,Laboratório de Flavivírus, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, FIOCRUZ, Manguinhos, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
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21
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Michel-Todó L, Reche PA, Bigey P, Pinazo MJ, Gascón J, Alonso-Padilla J. In silico Design of an Epitope-Based Vaccine Ensemble for Chagas Disease. Front Immunol 2019; 10:2698. [PMID: 31824493 PMCID: PMC6882931 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2019.02698] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2019] [Accepted: 11/01/2019] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Trypanosoma cruzi infection causes Chagas disease, which affects 7 million people worldwide. Two drugs are available to treat it: benznidazole and nifurtimox. Although both are efficacious against the acute stage of the disease, this is usually asymptomatic and goes undiagnosed and untreated. Diagnosis is achieved at the chronic stage, when life-threatening heart and/or gut tissue disruptions occur in ~30% of those chronically infected. By then, the drugs' efficacy is reduced, but not their associated high toxicity. Given current deficiencies in diagnosis and treatment, a vaccine to prevent infection and/or the development of symptoms would be a breakthrough in the management of the disease. Current vaccine candidates are mostly based on the delivery of single antigens or a few different antigens. Nevertheless, due to the high biological complexity of the parasite, targeting as many antigens as possible would be desirable. In this regard, an epitope-based vaccine design could be a well-suited approach. With this aim, we have gone through publicly available databases to identify T. cruzi epitopes from several antigens. By means of a computer-aided strategy, we have prioritized a set of epitopes based on sequence conservation criteria, projected population coverage of Latin American population, and biological features of their antigens of origin. Fruit of this analysis, we provide a selection of CD8+ T cell, CD4+ T cell, and B cell epitopes that have <70% identity to human or human microbiome protein sequences and represent the basis toward the development of an epitope-based vaccine against T. cruzi.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucas Michel-Todó
- Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), Hospital Clínic, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Pedro Antonio Reche
- Laboratory of Immunomedicine, Faculty of Medicine, University Complutense of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Pascal Bigey
- Université de Paris, UTCBS, CNRS, INSERM, Paris, France.,PSL University, ChimieParisTech, Paris, France
| | - Maria-Jesus Pinazo
- Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), Hospital Clínic, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Joaquim Gascón
- Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), Hospital Clínic, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Julio Alonso-Padilla
- Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), Hospital Clínic, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
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22
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A multi-epitope DNA vaccine co-administered with monophosphoryl lipid A adjuvant provides protection against tick transmitted Ehrlichia ruminantium in sheep. Vaccine 2019; 37:4354-4363. [PMID: 31248684 DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2019.06.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2019] [Revised: 06/10/2019] [Accepted: 06/11/2019] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Abstract
Previously, a heartwater experimental DNA vaccine provided 100% protection following laboratory challenge with Ehrlichia ruminantium administered by needle but not against an E. ruminantium tick challenge in the field. A multi-epitope DNA vaccine incorporating both CD4+ and CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes epitopes could provide a better alternative. In this study, we investigated the use of multi-epitope DNA vaccines against an E. ruminantium experimental tick challenge in sheep. The multi-epitope DNA vaccines were delivered via the intramuscular route and intradermal route using the gene gun in the presence of monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL) adjuvant, which was either applied topically to the gene gun inoculation site or co-administered with the vaccine via the intramuscular route. Initially two constructs namely, pSignal plus and pLamp were tested with MPL applied topically only and no protection was obtained in this formulation. However, when pLamp was co-administered with MPL via the intramuscular route in addition to topical application, its protective efficiency improved to protect 60% of the sheep against tick challenge. In this formulation, the vaccine induced enhanced activation of memory T cell responses both before and after challenge with variations amongst the different sheep possibly due to their different genetic backgrounds. In conclusion, this study showed that a heartwater multi-epitope DNA vaccine, co-administered with MPL adjuvant can protect sheep following a laboratory E. ruminantium tick challenge.
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23
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Woodham AW, Cheloha RW, Ling J, Rashidian M, Kolifrath SC, Mesyngier M, Duarte JN, Bader JM, Skeate JG, Da Silva DM, Kast WM, Ploegh HL. Nanobody-Antigen Conjugates Elicit HPV-Specific Antitumor Immune Responses. Cancer Immunol Res 2018; 6:870-880. [PMID: 29792298 DOI: 10.1158/2326-6066.cir-17-0661] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2017] [Revised: 01/19/2018] [Accepted: 05/16/2018] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Abstract
High-risk human papillomavirus-associated cancers express viral oncoproteins (e.g., E6 and E7) that induce and maintain the malignant phenotype. The viral origin of these proteins makes them attractive targets for development of a therapeutic vaccine. Camelid-derived single-domain antibody fragments (nanobodies or VHHs) that recognize cell surface proteins on antigen-presenting cells (APC) can serve as targeted delivery vehicles for antigens attached to them. Such VHHs were shown to induce CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses against model antigens conjugated to them via sortase, but antitumor responses had not yet been investigated. Here, we tested the ability of an anti-CD11b VHH (VHHCD11b) to target APCs and serve as the basis for a therapeutic vaccine to induce CD8+ T-cell responses against HPV+ tumors. Mice immunized with VHHCD11b conjugated to an H-2Db-restricted immunodominant E7 epitope (E749-57) had more E7-specific CD8+ T cells compared with those immunized with E749-57 peptide alone. These CD8+ T cells acted prophylactically and conferred protection against a subsequent challenge with HPV E7-expressing tumor cells. In a therapeutic setting, VHHCD11b-E749-57 vaccination resulted in greater numbers of CD8+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes compared with mice receiving E749-57 peptide alone in HPV+ tumor-bearing mice, as measured by in vivo noninvasive VHH-based immune-positron emission tomography (immunoPET), which correlated with tumor regression and survival outcome. Together, these results demonstrate that VHHs can serve as a therapeutic cancer vaccine platform for HPV-induced cancers. Cancer Immunol Res; 6(7); 870-80. ©2018 AACR.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew W Woodham
- Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. .,Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Ross W Cheloha
- Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.,Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Jingjing Ling
- Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.,Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Mohammad Rashidian
- Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.,Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Stephen C Kolifrath
- Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Maia Mesyngier
- Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Joao N Duarte
- Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Justin M Bader
- Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Joseph G Skeate
- Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
| | - Diane M Da Silva
- Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.,Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
| | - W Martin Kast
- Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.,Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.,Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
| | - Hidde L Ploegh
- Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
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24
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Gavvovidis I, Leisegang M, Willimsky G, Miller N, Nghiem P, Blankenstein T. Targeting Merkel Cell Carcinoma by Engineered T Cells Specific to T-Antigens of Merkel Cell Polyomavirus. Clin Cancer Res 2018; 24:3644-3655. [PMID: 29669806 DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.ccr-17-2661] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2017] [Revised: 02/28/2018] [Accepted: 04/13/2018] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Purpose: The causative agent of most cases of Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) has been identified as the Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCV). MCV-encoded T antigens (Tag) are essential not only for virus-mediated tumorigenesis but also for maintaining MCC cell lines in vitro MCV Tags are thus an appealing target for viral oncoprotein-directed T-cell therapy for MCC. With this study, we aimed to isolate and characterize Tag-specific T-cell receptors (TCR) for potential use in gene therapy clinical trials.Experimental Design: T-cell responses against MCV Tag epitopes were investigated by immunizing transgenic mice that express a diverse human TCR repertoire restricted to HLA-A2. Human lymphocytes genetically engineered to express Tag-specific TCRs were tested for specific reactivity against MCC cell lines. The therapeutic potential of Tag-specific TCR gene therapy was tested in a syngeneic cancer model.Results: We identified naturally processed epitopes of MCV Tags and isolated Tag-specific TCRs. T cells expressing these TCRs were activated by HLA-A2-positive cells loaded with cognate peptide or cells that stably expressed MCV Tags. We showed cytotoxic potential of T cells engineered to express these TCRs in vitro and demonstrated regression of established tumors in a mouse model upon TCR gene therapy.Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that MCC cells can be targeted by MCV Tag-specific TCRs. Although recent findings suggest that approximately half of MCC patients benefit from PD-1 pathway blockade, additional patients may benefit if their endogenous T-cell response can be augmented by infusion of transgenic MCV-specific T cells such as those described here. Clin Cancer Res; 24(15); 3644-55. ©2018 AACR.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ioannis Gavvovidis
- Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), Berlin, Germany.,Institute of Immunology, Charité, Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany
| | - Matthias Leisegang
- Institute of Immunology, Charité, Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany.,Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany
| | - Gerald Willimsky
- Institute of Immunology, Charité, Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany.,German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Natalie Miller
- University of Washington, Dermatology/Medicine/Pathology, Seattle, Washington
| | - Paul Nghiem
- University of Washington, Dermatology/Medicine/Pathology, Seattle, Washington
| | - Thomas Blankenstein
- Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), Berlin, Germany. .,Institute of Immunology, Charité, Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany.,Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany
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25
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Athanasiou E, Agallou M, Tastsoglou S, Kammona O, Hatzigeorgiou A, Kiparissides C, Karagouni E. A Poly(Lactic- co-Glycolic) Acid Nanovaccine Based on Chimeric Peptides from Different Leishmania infantum Proteins Induces Dendritic Cells Maturation and Promotes Peptide-Specific IFNγ-Producing CD8 + T Cells Essential for the Protection against Experimental Visceral Leishmaniasis. Front Immunol 2017; 8:684. [PMID: 28659922 PMCID: PMC5468442 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2017.00684] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2017] [Accepted: 05/26/2017] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Visceral leishmaniasis, caused by Leishmania (L.) donovani and L. infantum protozoan parasites, can provoke overwhelming and protracted epidemics, with high case-fatality rates. An effective vaccine against the disease must rely on the generation of a strong and long-lasting T cell immunity, mediated by CD4+ TH1 and CD8+ T cells. Multi-epitope peptide-based vaccine development is manifesting as the new era of vaccination strategies against Leishmania infection. In this study, we designed chimeric peptides containing HLA-restricted epitopes from three immunogenic L. infantum proteins (cysteine peptidase A, histone H1, and kinetoplastid membrane protein 11), in order to be encapsulated in poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid nanoparticles with or without the adjuvant monophosphoryl lipid A (MPLA) or surface modification with an octapeptide targeting the tumor necrosis factor receptor II. We aimed to construct differentially functionalized peptide-based nanovaccine candidates and investigate their capacity to stimulate the immunomodulatory properties of dendritic cells (DCs), which are critical regulators of adaptive immunity generated upon vaccination. According to our results, DCs stimulation with the peptide-based nanovaccine candidates with MPLA incorporation or surface modification induced an enhanced maturation profile with prominent IL-12 production, promoting allogeneic T cell proliferation and intracellular production of IFNγ by CD4+ and CD8+ T cell subsets. In addition, DCs stimulated with the peptide-based nanovaccine candidate with MPLA incorporation exhibited a robust transcriptional activation, characterized by upregulated genes indicative of vaccine-driven DCs differentiation toward type 1 phenotype. Immunization of HLA A2.1 transgenic mice with this peptide-based nanovaccine candidate induced peptide-specific IFNγ-producing CD8+ T cells and conferred significant protection against L. infantum infection. Concluding, our findings supported that encapsulation of more than one chimeric multi-epitope peptides from different immunogenic L. infantum proteins in a proper biocompatible delivery system with the right adjuvant is considered as an improved promising approach for the development of a vaccine against VL.
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Affiliation(s)
- Evita Athanasiou
- Laboratory of Cellular Immunology, Department of Microbiology, Hellenic Pasteur Institute, Athens, Greece
| | - Maria Agallou
- Laboratory of Cellular Immunology, Department of Microbiology, Hellenic Pasteur Institute, Athens, Greece
| | | | - Olga Kammona
- Laboratory of Polymer Reaction Engineering, Chemical Process and Energy Resources Institute, Centre for Research and Technology-Hellas, Thessaloniki, Greece
| | | | - Costas Kiparissides
- Laboratory of Polymer Reaction Engineering, Chemical Process and Energy Resources Institute, Centre for Research and Technology-Hellas, Thessaloniki, Greece.,Laboratory of Chemical Engineering B, Department of Chemical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
| | - Evdokia Karagouni
- Laboratory of Cellular Immunology, Department of Microbiology, Hellenic Pasteur Institute, Athens, Greece
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26
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Expression, Polyubiquitination, and Therapeutic Potential of Recombinant E6E7 from HPV16 Antigens Fused to Ubiquitin. Mol Biotechnol 2017; 59:46-56. [PMID: 28025776 DOI: 10.1007/s12033-016-9990-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
Ubiquitin-proteasome system plays an essential role in the immune response due to its involvement in the antigen generation and presentation to CD8+ T cells. Hereby, ubiquitin fused to antigens has been explored as an immunotherapeutic strategy that requires the activation of cytotoxic T lymphocytes. Here we propose to apply this ubiquitin fusion approach to a recombinant vaccine against human papillomavirus 16-infected cells. E6E7 multi-epitope antigen was fused genetically at its N- or C-terminal end to ubiquitin and expressed in Escherichia coli as inclusion bodies. The antigens were solubilized using urea and purified by nickel affinity chromatography in denatured condition. Fusion of ubiquitin to E6E7 resulted in marked polyubiquitination in vitro mainly when fused to the E6E7 N-terminal. When tested in a therapeutic scenario, the fusion of ubiquitin to E6E7 reinforced the anti-tumor protection and increased the E6/E7-specific cellular immune responses. Present results encourage the investigation of the adjuvant potential of the ubiquitin fusion to recombinant vaccines requiring CD8+ T cells.
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27
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Devaraj K, Gillison ML, Wu TC. Development of HPV Vaccines for HPV-associated Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2016; 14:345-62. [PMID: 14530303 DOI: 10.1177/154411130301400505] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
High-risk genotypes of the human papillomavirus (HPV), particularly HPV type 16, are found in a distinct subset of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC). Thus, these HPV-associated HNSCC may be prevented or treated by vaccines designed to induce appropriate HPV virus-specific immune responses. Infection by HPV may be prevented by neutralizing antibodies specific for the viral capsid proteins. In clinical trials, vaccines comprised of HPV virus-like particles (VLPs) have shown great promise as prophylactic HPV vaccines. However, given that capsid proteins are not expressed at detectable levels by infected basal keratinocytes, vaccines with therapeutic potential must target other non-structural viral antigens. Two HPV oncogenic proteins, E6 and E7, are important in the induction and maintenance of cellular transformation and are co-expressed in the majority of HPV-containing carcinomas. Therefore, therapeutic vaccines targeting these proteins may have potential to control HPV-associated malignancies. Various candidate therapeutic HPV vaccines are currently being tested whereby E6 and/or E7 is administered in live vectors, in peptides or protein, in nucleic acid form, as components of chimeric VLPs, or in cell-based vaccines. Encouraging results from experimental vaccination systems in animal models have led to several prophylactic and therapeutic vaccine clinical trials. Should they fulfill their promise, these vaccines may prevent HPV infection or control its potentially life-threatening consequences in humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kalpana Devaraj
- Department of Pathology, The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, 720 Rutland Avenue, Ross Building 512, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
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28
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Wu M, Li M, Yue Y, Xu W. DNA vaccine with discontinuous T-cell epitope insertions into HSP65 scaffold as a potential means to improve immunogenicity of multi-epitope Mycobacterium tuberculosis
vaccine. Microbiol Immunol 2016; 60:634-45. [DOI: 10.1111/1348-0421.12410] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2016] [Revised: 08/04/2016] [Accepted: 08/08/2016] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Manli Wu
- Institute of Biology and Medical Sciences; Soochow University; Building 703, 199 Ren-ai Road Suzhou 215123 China
| | - Min Li
- Institute of Biology and Medical Sciences; Soochow University; Building 703, 199 Ren-ai Road Suzhou 215123 China
| | - Yan Yue
- Institute of Biology and Medical Sciences; Soochow University; Building 703, 199 Ren-ai Road Suzhou 215123 China
| | - Wei Xu
- Institute of Biology and Medical Sciences; Soochow University; Building 703, 199 Ren-ai Road Suzhou 215123 China
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael A. Steller
- Program in Women's Oncology, Women and Infants' Hospital, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Gynecologic Oncology, Brown University School of Medicine, Providence, Rhode Island; St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, Division of Gynecologic Oncology, 736 Cambridge Street, Boston, MA 02135-2997
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Gutiérrez AH, Loving C, Moise L, Terry FE, Brockmeier SL, Hughes HR, Martin WD, De Groot AS. In Vivo Validation of Predicted and Conserved T Cell Epitopes in a Swine Influenza Model. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0159237. [PMID: 27411061 PMCID: PMC4943726 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0159237] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2016] [Accepted: 06/29/2016] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Swine influenza is a highly contagious respiratory viral infection in pigs that is responsible for significant financial losses to pig farmers annually. Current measures to protect herds from infection include: inactivated whole-virus vaccines, subunit vaccines, and alpha replicon-based vaccines. As is true for influenza vaccines for humans, these strategies do not provide broad protection against the diverse strains of influenza A virus (IAV) currently circulating in U.S. swine. Improved approaches to developing swine influenza vaccines are needed. Here, we used immunoinformatics tools to identify class I and II T cell epitopes highly conserved in seven representative strains of IAV in U.S. swine and predicted to bind to Swine Leukocyte Antigen (SLA) alleles prevalent in commercial swine. Epitope-specific interferon-gamma (IFNγ) recall responses to pooled peptides and whole virus were detected in pigs immunized with multi-epitope plasmid DNA vaccines encoding strings of class I and II putative epitopes. In a retrospective analysis of the IFNγ responses to individual peptides compared to predictions specific to the SLA alleles of cohort pigs, we evaluated the predictive performance of PigMatrix and demonstrated its ability to distinguish non-immunogenic from immunogenic peptides and to identify promiscuous class II epitopes. Overall, this study confirms the capacity of PigMatrix to predict immunogenic T cell epitopes and demonstrate its potential for use in the design of epitope-driven vaccines for swine. Additional studies that match the SLA haplotype of animals with the study epitopes will be required to evaluate the degree of immune protection conferred by epitope-driven DNA vaccines in pigs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andres H. Gutiérrez
- Institute for Immunology and Informatics, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Rhode Island, Providence, RI, United States of America
| | - Crystal Loving
- Virus and Prion Diseases Research Unit, NADC, USDA ARS, Ames, IA, United States of America
| | - Leonard Moise
- Institute for Immunology and Informatics, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Rhode Island, Providence, RI, United States of America
- EpiVax Inc., Providence, RI, United States of America
| | | | - Susan L. Brockmeier
- Virus and Prion Diseases Research Unit, NADC, USDA ARS, Ames, IA, United States of America
| | - Holly R. Hughes
- Virus and Prion Diseases Research Unit, NADC, USDA ARS, Ames, IA, United States of America
| | | | - Anne S. De Groot
- Institute for Immunology and Informatics, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Rhode Island, Providence, RI, United States of America
- EpiVax Inc., Providence, RI, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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Tang J, Yam WC, Chen Z. Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection and vaccine development. Tuberculosis (Edinb) 2016; 98:30-41. [PMID: 27156616 DOI: 10.1016/j.tube.2016.02.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/28/2015] [Accepted: 02/22/2016] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
Following HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) continues to be the second most deadly infectious disease in humans. The global TB prevalence has become worse in recent years due to the emergence of multi-drug resistant (MDR) and extensively-drug resistant (XDR) strains, as well as co-infection with HIV. Although Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine has nearly been used for a century in many countries, it does not protect adult pulmonary tuberculosis and even causes disseminated BCG disease in HIV-positive population. It is impossible to use BCG to eliminate the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb) infection or to prevent TB onset and reactivation. Consequently, novel vaccines are urgently needed for TB prevention and immunotherapy. In this review, we discuss the TB prevalence, interaction between M. tb and host immune system, as well as recent progress of TB vaccine research and development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiansong Tang
- AIDS Institute and Department of Microbiology, Research Centre for Infection and Immunity, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
| | - Wing-Cheong Yam
- Department of Microbiology, Queen Mary Hospital, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
| | - Zhiwei Chen
- AIDS Institute and Department of Microbiology, Research Centre for Infection and Immunity, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; HKU-AIDS Institute Shenzhen Research Laboratory and AIDS Clinical Research Laboratory, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Shenzhen Third People's Hospital, Guangdong Medical College, Shenzhen, PR China.
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Abstract
String-of-beads polypeptides allow convenient delivery of epitope-based vaccines. The success of a polypeptide relies on efficient processing: constituent epitopes need to be recovered while avoiding neo-epitopes from epitope junctions. Spacers between epitopes are employed to ensure this, but spacer selection is non-trivial. We present a framework to determine optimally the length and sequence of a spacer through multi-objective optimization for human leukocyte antigen class I restricted polypeptides. The method yields string-of-bead vaccines with flexible spacer lengths that increase the predicted epitope recovery rate fivefold while reducing the immunogenicity from neo-epitopes by 44 % compared to designs without spacers.
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Yang Y, Sun W, Guo J, Zhao G, Sun S, Yu H, Guo Y, Li J, Jin X, Du L, Jiang S, Kou Z, Zhou Y. In silico design of a DNA-based HIV-1 multi-epitope vaccine for Chinese populations. Hum Vaccin Immunother 2015; 11:795-805. [PMID: 25839222 DOI: 10.1080/21645515.2015.1012017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 85] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
The development of an HIV-1 vaccine that is capable of inducing effective and broadly cross-reactive humoral and cellular immune responses remains a challenging task because of the extensive diversity of HIV-1, the difference of virus subtypes (clades) in different geographical regions, and the polymorphism of human leukocyte antigens (HLA). We performed an in silico design of 3 DNA vaccines, designated pJW4303-MEG1, pJW4303-MEG2 and pJW4303-MEG3, encoding multi-epitopes that are highly conserved within the HIV-1 subtypes most prevalent in China and can be recognized through HLA alleles dominant in China. The pJW4303-MEG1-encoded protein consisted of one Th epitope in Env, and one, 2, and 6 epitopes in Pol, Env, and Gag proteins, respectively, with a GGGS linker sequence between epitopes. The pJW4303-MEG2-encoded protein contained similar epitopes in a different order, but with the same linker as pJW4303-MEG1. The pJW4303-MEG3-encoded protein contained the same epitopes in the same order as that of pJW4303-MEG2, but with a different linker sequence (AAY). To evaluate immunogenicity, mice were immunized intramuscularly with these DNA vaccines. Both pJW4303-MEG1 and pJW4303-MEG2 vaccines induced equally potent humoral and cellular immune responses in the vaccinated mice, while pJW4303-MEG3 did not induce immune responses. These results indicate that both epitope and linker sequences are important in designing effective epitope-based vaccines against HIV-1 and other viruses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yi Yang
- a State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity ; Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology ; Beijing , China
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Improving Multi-Epitope Long Peptide Vaccine Potency by Using a Strategy that Enhances CD4+ T Help in BALB/c Mice. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0142563. [PMID: 26556756 PMCID: PMC4640540 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0142563] [Citation(s) in RCA: 101] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2015] [Accepted: 10/25/2015] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Peptide-based vaccines are attractive approaches for cancer immunotherapy; but the success of these vaccines in clinical trials have been limited. Our goal is to improve immune responses and anti-tumor effects against a synthetic, multi-epitope, long peptide from rat Her2/neu (rHer2/neu) using the help of CD4+ T cells and appropriate adjuvant in a mouse tumor model. Female BALB/c mice were vaccinated with P5+435 multi-epitope long peptide that presents epitopes for cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) in combination with a universal Pan DR epitope (PADRE) or CpG-oligodeoxynucleotides (CpG-ODNs) as a Toll-like receptor agonist adjuvant. The results show that vaccination with the multi-epitope long peptide in combination with the PADRE peptide and CpG-ODN induced expansion of subpopulations of CD4+ and CD8+ cells producing IFN-γ, the average tumor size in the vaccinated mice was less than that of the other groups, and tumor growth was inhibited in 40% of the mice in the vaccinated group. The mean survival time was 82.6 ± 1.25 days in mice vaccinated with P5+435 + CpG+ PADRE. Our results demonstrate that inclusion of PADRE and CpG with the peptide vaccine enhanced significant tumor specific-immune responses in vaccinated mice.
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Textoris-Taube K, Keller C, Liepe J, Henklein P, Sidney J, Sette A, Kloetzel PM, Mishto M. The T210M Substitution in the HLA-a*02:01 gp100 Epitope Strongly Affects Overall Proteasomal Cleavage Site Usage and Antigen Processing. J Biol Chem 2015; 290:30417-28. [PMID: 26507656 DOI: 10.1074/jbc.m115.695189] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2015] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
MHC class I-restricted epitopes, which carry a tumor-specific mutation resulting in improved MHC binding affinity, are preferred T cell receptor targets in innovative adoptive T cell therapies. However, T cell therapy requires efficient generation of the selected epitope. How such mutations may affect proteasome-mediated antigen processing has so far not been studied. Therefore, we analyzed by in vitro experiments the effect on antigen processing and recognition of a T210M exchange, which previously had been introduced into the melanoma gp100209-217 tumor epitope to improve the HLA-A*02:01 binding and its immunogenicity. A quantitative analysis of the main steps of antigen processing shows that the T210M exchange affects proteasomal cleavage site usage within the mutgp100201-230 polypeptide, leading to the generation of an unique set of cleavage products. The T210M substitution qualitatively affects the proteasome-catalyzed generation of spliced and non-spliced peptides predicted to bind HLA-A or -B complexes. The T210M substitution also induces an enhanced production of the mutgp100209-217 epitope and its N-terminally extended peptides. The T210M exchange revealed no effect on ERAP1-mediated N-terminal trimming of the precursor peptides. However, mutant N-terminally extended peptides exhibited significantly increased HLA-A*02:01 binding affinity and elicited CD8(+) T cell stimulation in vitro similar to the wtgp100209-217 epitope. Thus, our experiments demonstrate that amino acid exchanges within an epitope can result in the generation of an altered peptide pool with new antigenic peptides and in a wider CD8(+) T cell response also towards N-terminally extended versions of the minimal epitope.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kathrin Textoris-Taube
- From the Institut für Biochemie, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10117 Berlin, Germany
| | - Christin Keller
- From the Institut für Biochemie, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10117 Berlin, Germany
| | - Juliane Liepe
- Centre for Integrative Systems Biology and Bioinformatics, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom, and
| | - Petra Henklein
- From the Institut für Biochemie, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10117 Berlin, Germany
| | - John Sidney
- Division of Vaccine Discovery, La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, La Jolla, California 92037
| | - Alessandro Sette
- Division of Vaccine Discovery, La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, La Jolla, California 92037
| | - Peter M Kloetzel
- From the Institut für Biochemie, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10117 Berlin, Germany,
| | - Michele Mishto
- From the Institut für Biochemie, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10117 Berlin, Germany,
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Stermann A, Huebener N, Seidel D, Fest S, Eschenburg G, Stauder M, Schramm A, Eggert A, Lode HN. Targeting of MYCN by means of DNA vaccination is effective against neuroblastoma in mice. Cancer Immunol Immunother 2015; 64:1215-27. [PMID: 26076666 PMCID: PMC11028418 DOI: 10.1007/s00262-015-1733-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2015] [Accepted: 06/04/2015] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
The MYCN oncogene is a strong genetic marker associated with poor prognosis in neuroblastoma (NB). Therefore, MYCN gene amplification and subsequent overexpression provide a possible target for new treatment approaches in NB. We first identified an inverse correlation of MYCN expression with CD45 mRNA in 101 NB tumor samples. KEGG mapping further revealed that MYCN expression was associated with immune-suppressive pathways characterized by a down-regulation of T cell activation and up-regulation of T cell inhibitory gene transcripts. We then aimed to investigate whether DNA vaccination against MYCN is effective to induce an antigen-specific and T cell-mediated immune response. For this purpose, we generated a MYCN-expressing syngeneic mouse model by MYCN gene transfer to NXS2 cells. MYCN-DNA vaccines were engineered based on the pCMV-F3Ub plasmid backbone to drive ubiquitinated full-length MYCN-cDNA and minigene expression. Vaccines were delivered orally with attenuated S. typhimurium strain SL7207 as a carrier. Immunization with both MYCN-DNA vaccines significantly reduced primary tumor growth of MYCN-expressing NB cells in contrast to negative controls. The immune response was mediated by tumor-infiltrating T cells in vivo, which revealed MYCN-specific and MHC class I-restricted lysis of inducible MYCN-expressing NB target cells in vitro. Finally, these antigen-specific T cells also killed MYCN-negative mammary carcinoma cells pulsed with MYCN peptides in contrast to controls. In summary, we demonstrate proof of concept that MYCN can be targeted by DNA vaccination, which may provide an approach to overcoming MYCN immune-suppressive activities in patients with MYCN-amplified disease.
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MESH Headings
- Administration, Oral
- Animals
- Carcinoma/immunology
- Carcinoma/microbiology
- Cell Line, Tumor
- Cytotoxicity, Immunologic
- Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte/genetics
- Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte/metabolism
- Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic
- Humans
- Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating/immunology
- Mammary Neoplasms, Animal/immunology
- Mammary Neoplasms, Animal/microbiology
- Mice
- Mice, Inbred Strains
- N-Myc Proto-Oncogene Protein
- Neoplasm Transplantation
- Neoplasms, Experimental
- Neuroblastoma/genetics
- Neuroblastoma/immunology
- Neuroblastoma/microbiology
- Peptide Fragments
- Proto-Oncogene Proteins/genetics
- Proto-Oncogene Proteins/metabolism
- Salmonella Vaccines/administration & dosage
- Salmonella typhimurium/immunology
- Transgenes/genetics
- Tumor Burden
- Vaccination
- Vaccines, Attenuated/administration & dosage
- Vaccines, DNA/administration & dosage
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander Stermann
- Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, University Medicine Greifswald, Ferdinand-Sauerbruch-Str 1, 17475 Greifswald, Germany
| | - Nicole Huebener
- Genetics of Metabolic and Reproductive Disorders, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Diana Seidel
- Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, University Medicine Greifswald, Ferdinand-Sauerbruch-Str 1, 17475 Greifswald, Germany
| | - Stefan Fest
- Department of Pediatrics, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Georg Eschenburg
- Department and Clinic of Pediatric Surgery, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Michael Stauder
- Department of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology, University Children’s Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Alexander Schramm
- Department of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology, University Children’s Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Angelika Eggert
- Pediatric Oncology and Hematology, Charité University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Holger N. Lode
- Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, University Medicine Greifswald, Ferdinand-Sauerbruch-Str 1, 17475 Greifswald, Germany
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A Toxoplasma gondii vaccine encoding multistage antigens in conjunction with ubiquitin confers protective immunity to BALB/c mice against parasite infection. Parasit Vectors 2015; 8:498. [PMID: 26420606 PMCID: PMC4588682 DOI: 10.1186/s13071-015-1108-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2015] [Accepted: 09/22/2015] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Toxoplasma gondii is a widely prevalent intracellular parasite which infects almost all warm-blooded animals including humans and causes serious zoonotic toxoplasmosis. DNA vaccines have proved effective in the protection against parasites. However, the problems of weak immunity and inefficient delivery of DNA vaccine remain major issues. Therefore, comprehensive antigens derived from all stages of the parasite, effective adjuvants and delivery systems should be considered in the vaccine construction. METHODS SAG3101-144,ROP18347-396, MIC6288-347, GRA7182-224, MAG158-125, BAG1156-211 and SPA142-200, derived from antigens in tachyzoite, bradyzoite and sporozoite stages of T. gondii were screened based on CD8(+) T cell epitope binding affinity to HLA and H-2. We constructed a recombinant DNA vaccine and an adenovirus vaccine encoding multi-stage antigen of T. gondii linked to ubiquitin molecules and vaccinated BALB/c mice with different strategies. Antibodies, cytokines, splenocytes proliferation, as well as the percentage of CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells in immunized mouse were analyzed by the Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assays (ELISA), Flow Cytometry (FCM). Protective efficacy was evaluated by challenging immunized mice with type I and type II parasite. RESULTS Our results indicated that the DNA vaccine had the advantage of inducing a stronger humoral response, whereas the adenovirus-vectored vaccine effectively improved the cellular immune response. Priming with DNA vaccine and boosting with adenovirus-vectored vaccine induced Th1-type immune responses with highest levels of IgG2a and secretion of cytokines IL-2 and IFN-γ. Effective protection against type I and type II parasite with an increase in survival rate and a decrease in brain cyst burden was achieved in immunized mice. CONCLUSIONS Priming vaccination with DNA vaccine and boosting with the recombinant adenovirus vaccine encoding ubiquitin conjugated multi-stage antigens of T. gondii was proved to be a potential strategy against the infection of type I and type II parasite.
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de Oliveira LMF, Morale MG, Chaves AAM, Cavalher AM, Lopes AS, Diniz MDO, Schanoski AS, de Melo RL, Ferreira LCDS, de Oliveira MLS, Demasi M, Ho PL. Design, Immune Responses and Anti-Tumor Potential of an HPV16 E6E7 Multi-Epitope Vaccine. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0138686. [PMID: 26390407 PMCID: PMC4577214 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0138686] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2015] [Accepted: 09/02/2015] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Cervical cancer is a common type of cancer among women worldwide and infection with high-risk human papillomavirus (HPVs) types represents the major risk factor for the etiopathogenesis of the disease. HPV-16 is the most frequently identified HPV type in cervical lesions and expression of E6 and E7 oncoproteins is required for the uncontrolled cellular proliferation. In the present study we report the design and experimental testing of a recombinant multi-epitope protein containing immunogenic epitopes of HPV-16 E6 and E7. Tumor preventive assays, based on the engraftment of TC-1 cells in mice, showed that the E6E7 multi-epitope protein induced a full preventive anti-tumor protection in wild-type mice, as well as in mice deficient in expression of CD4+ T cells and TLR4 receptor. Nonetheless, no anti-tumor protection was observed in mice deficient in CD8+ T cells. Also, the vaccine promoted high activation of E6/E7-specific T cells and in a therapeutic-approach, E6E7 protein conferred full anti-tumor protection in mice. These results show a potential use of this E6E7 multi-epitope antigen as a new and promising antigen for the development of a therapeutic vaccine against tumors induced by HPV.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Mirian Galliote Morale
- Laboratório de Biotecnologia Molecular I, Instituto Butantan, Av. Vital Brasil 1500, São Paulo-SP, Brazil
| | - Agatha A. Muniz Chaves
- Laboratório de Biotecnologia Molecular I, Instituto Butantan, Av. Vital Brasil 1500, São Paulo-SP, Brazil
| | - Aline Marques Cavalher
- Laboratório de Biotecnologia Molecular I, Instituto Butantan, Av. Vital Brasil 1500, São Paulo-SP, Brazil
| | - Aline Soriano Lopes
- Laboratório Especial de Toxinologia Aplicada-CeTICS, Instituto Butantan, Av. Vital Brasil 1500, São Paulo-SP, Brazil
| | - Mariana de Oliveira Diniz
- Departamento de Microbiologia, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo-SP, Brazil
| | | | - Robson Lopes de Melo
- Laboratório Especial de Toxinologia Aplicada-CeTICS, Instituto Butantan, Av. Vital Brasil 1500, São Paulo-SP, Brazil
| | | | | | - Marilene Demasi
- Laboratório de Bioquímica e Biofísica, Instituto Butantan, Av. Vital Brasil 1500, São Paulo-SP, Brazil
| | - Paulo Lee Ho
- Laboratório de Biotecnologia Molecular I, Instituto Butantan, Av. Vital Brasil 1500, São Paulo-SP, Brazil
- * E-mail:
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Liao S, Zhang W, Hu X, Wang W, Deng D, Wang H, Wang C, Zhou J, Wang S, Zhang H, Ma D. A novel "priming-boosting" strategy for immune interventions in cervical cancer. Mol Immunol 2015; 64:295-305. [PMID: 25575128 DOI: 10.1016/j.molimm.2014.12.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2014] [Revised: 12/13/2014] [Accepted: 12/16/2014] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
Despite the encouraging development of a preventive vaccine for human papillomavirus (HPV), it cannot improve ongoing infections. Therefore, a new vaccine is urgently needed that can prevent and treat cervical cancer, and cure pre-cancerous lesions. In this study, we constructed two peptide-based vaccines. The first was a short-term, long-peptide (ST-LP) vaccine that simultaneously targeted three key carcinogenic epitopes (E5-E6-E7) on HPV16. We tested this vaccine in murine TC-1 cells infected with a recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) fused with HPV16E5 DNA (rTC-1 cells), which served as a cell model; we also tested it in immune-competent mice loaded with rTC-1 cells, which served as an ectopic tumor model. The ST-LP injections resulted in strong, cell-mediated immunity, capable of attacking and eliminating abnormal antigen-bearing cells. Furthermore, to prolong immunogenic capability, we designed a unique rAAV that encoded the three predicted epitopes for a second, long-term, long-peptide (LT-LP) vaccine. Moreover, we used a new immune strategy of continuous re-injections, where three ST-LP injections were performed at one-week intervals (days 0, 7, 14), then one LT-LP injection was performed on day 120. Our in vitro and in vivo studies revealed that this strategy could boost the immune response to produce longer and stronger protection against target cells, and mice were thoroughly protected from tumor growth. Our results showed that priming the immune system with the ST-LP vaccine, followed by boosting the immune system with the LT-LP vaccine could generate a rapid, robust, durable cytotoxic T-lymphocyte response to HPV16-positive tumors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shujie Liao
- Cancer Biology Research Center, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430030, PR China
| | | | - Xiaoji Hu
- Wuhan General Hospita of Guangzhou Military Region, PR China
| | - Wei Wang
- Southern Medical University South Hospital, PR China
| | - Dongrui Deng
- Cancer Biology Research Center, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430030, PR China
| | - Hui Wang
- Cancer Biology Research Center, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430030, PR China
| | - Changyu Wang
- Cancer Biology Research Center, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430030, PR China
| | - Jianfeng Zhou
- Cancer Biology Research Center, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430030, PR China
| | - Shixuan Wang
- Cancer Biology Research Center, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430030, PR China
| | - Hanwang Zhang
- Cancer Biology Research Center, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430030, PR China.
| | - Ding Ma
- Cancer Biology Research Center, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430030, PR China.
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40
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Nezafat N, Sadraeian M, Rahbar MR, Khoshnoud MJ, Mohkam M, Gholami A, Banihashemi M, Ghasemi Y. Production of a novel multi-epitope peptide vaccine for cancer immunotherapy in TC-1 tumor-bearing mice. Biologicals 2014; 43:11-7. [PMID: 25467837 DOI: 10.1016/j.biologicals.2014.11.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2014] [Revised: 10/17/2014] [Accepted: 11/03/2014] [Indexed: 10/24/2022] Open
Abstract
In our previous research, several bioinformatic strategies were utilized to design an efficient multi-epitope peptide vaccine (MEV) against cancer. The designed vaccine consists of Wilms tumor-1 (WT-1) and human papillomavirus (HPV) E7 cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes, tetanus toxin fragment C (TTFrC) and HLA-DR epitope (PADRE) helper T lymphocyte (HTL) epitopes and heparin-binding hemagglutinin (HBHA) as an immunostimulatory adjuvant. All segments were fused together by suitable linkers. In the current study, we cloned and expressed the designed MEV in E. coli. We subsequently performed in vivo preventative and therapeutic assays to evaluate antitumor efficacy of the vaccine against the HPV-16 E7-expressing murine tumor cell line TC-1 as a model for cancer immunotherapy. The results showed that in preventive experiments, vaccination with MEV significantly augmented the IgG antibody titer and the percentage of tumor-free mice compared to control groups (PBS and E7). Moreover, in therapeutic experiments, vaccination with MEV led to a reduction in the number of metastatic nodules, lung weights and the ratio of lung weights to body weights compared to other groups. In sum, our epitope vaccine could efficiently induce preventive and therapeutic antitumor immunity in TC-1 tumor bearing mice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Navid Nezafat
- Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center, Faculty of Pharmacy, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
| | - Mohammad Sadraeian
- Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center, Faculty of Pharmacy, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
| | - Mohammad Reza Rahbar
- Department of Molecular Diagnosis, Saadati Pathobiology Laboratory, Shiraz, Iran
| | - Mohammad Javad Khoshnoud
- Department of Toxicology and Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
| | - Milad Mohkam
- Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center, Faculty of Pharmacy, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran; Department of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center, Faculty of Pharmacy, Shiraz University of Medical Science, Shiraz, Iran
| | - Ahmad Gholami
- Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center, Faculty of Pharmacy, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran; Department of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center, Faculty of Pharmacy, Shiraz University of Medical Science, Shiraz, Iran
| | - Mehrzad Banihashemi
- Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center, Faculty of Pharmacy, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
| | - Younes Ghasemi
- Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center, Faculty of Pharmacy, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran; Department of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center, Faculty of Pharmacy, Shiraz University of Medical Science, Shiraz, Iran.
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Seyed N, Taheri T, Vauchy C, Dosset M, Godet Y, Eslamifar A, Sharifi I, Adotevi O, Borg C, Rohrlich PS, Rafati S. Immunogenicity evaluation of a rationally designed polytope construct encoding HLA-A*0201 restricted epitopes derived from Leishmania major related proteins in HLA-A2/DR1 transgenic mice: steps toward polytope vaccine. PLoS One 2014; 9:e108848. [PMID: 25310094 PMCID: PMC4195657 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0108848] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2014] [Accepted: 08/22/2014] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Background There are several reports demonstrating the role of CD8 T cells against Leishmania species. Therefore peptide vaccine might represent an effective approach to control the infection. We developed a rational polytope-DNA construct encoding immunogenic HLA-A2 restricted peptides and validated the processing and presentation of encoded epitopes in a preclinical mouse model humanized for the MHC-class-I and II. Methods and Findings HLA-A*0201 restricted epitopes from LPG-3, LmSTI-1, CPB and CPC along with H-2Kd restricted peptides, were lined-up together as a polytope string in a DNA construct. Polytope string was rationally designed by harnessing advantages of ubiquitin, spacers and HLA-DR restricted Th1 epitope. Endotoxin free pcDNA plasmid expressing the polytope was inoculated into humanized HLA-DRB1*0101/HLA-A*0201 transgenic mice intramuscularly 4 days after Cardiotoxin priming followed by 2 boosters at one week interval. Mice were sacrificed 10 days after the last booster, and splenocytes were subjected to ex-vivo and in-vitro evaluation of specific IFN-γ production and in-vitro cytotoxicity against individual peptides by ELISpot and standard chromium-51(51Cr) release assay respectively. 4 H-2Kd and 5 HLA-A*0201 restricted peptides were able to induce specific CD8 T cell responses in BALB/C and HLA-A2/DR1 mice respectively. IFN-γ and cytolytic activity together discriminated LPG-3-P1 as dominant, LmSTI-1-P3 and LmSTI-1-P6 as subdominant with both cytolytic activity and IFN-γ production, LmSTI-1-P4 and LPG-3-P5 as subdominant with only IFN-γ production potential. Conclusions Here we described a new DNA-polytope construct for Leishmania vaccination encompassing immunogenic HLA-A2 restricted peptides. Immunogenicity evaluation in HLA-transgenic model confirmed CD8 T cell induction with expected affinities and avidities showing almost efficient processing and presentation of the peptides in relevant preclinical model. Further evaluation will determine the efficacy of this polytope construct protecting against infectious challenge of Leishmania. Fortunately HLA transgenic mice are promising preclinical models helping to speed up immunogenicity analysis in a human related mouse model.
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Affiliation(s)
- Negar Seyed
- Molecular Immunology and Vaccine Research Lab, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Tahereh Taheri
- Molecular Immunology and Vaccine Research Lab, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Charline Vauchy
- INSERM U1098, Unité Mixte de Recherche, Besançon, France
- Etablissement Français du Sang de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
- Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
| | - Magalie Dosset
- INSERM U1098, Unité Mixte de Recherche, Besançon, France
- Etablissement Français du Sang de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
- Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
| | - Yann Godet
- INSERM U1098, Unité Mixte de Recherche, Besançon, France
- Etablissement Français du Sang de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
- Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
| | - Ali Eslamifar
- Department of Electron Microscopy and Clinical Research, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Iraj Sharifi
- School of Medicine, Leishmaniasis Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
| | - Olivier Adotevi
- INSERM U1098, Unité Mixte de Recherche, Besançon, France
- Etablissement Français du Sang de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
- Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
- CHRU de Besançon, Service d′Oncologie, Besançon, France
| | - Christophe Borg
- INSERM U1098, Unité Mixte de Recherche, Besançon, France
- Etablissement Français du Sang de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
- Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
- CHRU de Besançon, Service d′Oncologie, Besançon, France
| | - Pierre Simon Rohrlich
- INSERM U1098, Unité Mixte de Recherche, Besançon, France
- Etablissement Français du Sang de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
- Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
- CHRU de Besançon, Service de pédiatrie, Besançon, France
| | - Sima Rafati
- Molecular Immunology and Vaccine Research Lab, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
- * E-mail:
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Terry FE, Moise L, Martin RF, Torres M, Pilotte N, Williams SA, De Groot AS. Time for T? Immunoinformatics addresses vaccine design for neglected tropical and emerging infectious diseases. Expert Rev Vaccines 2014; 14:21-35. [PMID: 25193104 PMCID: PMC4743591 DOI: 10.1586/14760584.2015.955478] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Vaccines have been invaluable for global health, saving lives and reducing healthcare costs, while also raising the quality of human life. However, newly emerging infectious diseases (EID) and more well-established tropical disease pathogens present complex challenges to vaccine developers; in particular, neglected tropical diseases, which are most prevalent among the world's poorest, include many pathogens with large sizes, multistage life cycles and a variety of nonhuman vectors. EID such as MERS-CoV and H7N9 are highly pathogenic for humans. For many of these pathogens, while their genomes are available, immune correlates of protection are currently unknown. These complexities make developing vaccines for EID and neglected tropical diseases all the more difficult. In this review, we describe the implementation of an immunoinformatics-driven approach to systematically search for key determinants of immunity in newly available genome sequence data and design vaccines. This approach holds promise for the development of 21st century vaccines, improving human health everywhere.
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Clustered epitopes within a new poly-epitopic HIV-1 DNA vaccine shows immunogenicity in BALB/c mice. Mol Biol Rep 2014; 41:5207-14. [PMID: 24842263 DOI: 10.1007/s11033-014-3388-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/12/2013] [Accepted: 04/29/2014] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
Despite a huge number of studies towards vaccine development against human immunodeficiency virus-1, no effective vaccine has been approved yet. Thus, new vaccines should be provided with new formulations. Herein, a new DNA vaccine candidate encoding conserved and immunogenic epitopes from HIV-1 antigens of tat, pol, gag and env is designed and constructed. After bioinformatics analyses to find the best epitopes and their tandem, nucleotide sequence corresponding to the designed multiepitope was synthesized and cloned into pcDNA3.1+ vector. Expression of pcDNA3.1-tat/pol/gag/env plasmid was evaluated in HEK293T cells by RT-PCR and western-blotting. Seven groups of BALB/c mice were intramuscularly immunized three times either with 50, 100, 200 µg of plasmid in 2-week intervals or with similar doses of insert-free plasmid. Two weeks after the last injection, proliferation of T cells and secretion of IL4 and IFN-γ cytokines were evaluated using Brdu and ELISA methods, respectively. Results showed the proper expression of the plasmid in protein and mRNA levels. Moreover, the designed multiepitope plasmid was capable of induction of both proliferation responses as well as IFN-γ and IL-4 cytokine production in a considerable level compared to the control groups. Overall, our primary data warranted further detailed studies on the potency of this vaccine.
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Almeida APMM, Dias MO, Vieira CDAF, Chávez-Olórtegui C, Gazzineli RT, Rodrigues MM, Fujiwara RT, Bruna-Romero O. Long-lasting humoral and cellular immune responses elicited by immunization with recombinant chimeras of the Plasmodium vivax circumsporozoite protein. Vaccine 2014; 32:2181-7. [PMID: 24582631 DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2014.02.053] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2013] [Revised: 01/23/2014] [Accepted: 02/12/2014] [Indexed: 01/16/2023]
Abstract
The circumsporozoite protein (CSP), the most abundant surface antigen of sporozoites, has been extensively studied in different expression platforms as a vaccine candidate. Clinical trials have shown the necessity of broad and highly avid humoral immune responses together with high numbers of CSP-specific TCD4+ and TCD8+ cells, especially those producing IFN-γ, to induce protection. To this aim, we designed two distinct recombinant immunogens based on previously-described antigenic fragments of Plasmodium vivax CSP (PvCSP) to be used as vaccine candidates. The first one is a virus-like particle (VLP) comprising the repeat region of PvCSP (B and TCD4+ epitopes) within the loop of the hepatitis B virus core antigen (HBcAgPvCSP). The second one is a PvCSP multi-epitope polypeptide, rPvCSP-ME, designed based on antigenic regions of PvCSP recognized by lymphocytes of individuals from endemic areas. Mice immunized with 2 doses of these proteins, administered individually or combined and formulated in Montanide ISA 720 adjuvant, were able to induce strong effector and memory humoral responses with IgG titers ranging from 10(4) to 10(5) and avidity indexes toward full-length PvCSP reaching up to 66%, even 3 months after the last immunization. Furthermore, balanced Th1/Th2 responses were generated, as determined by titers of IgG subclasses and further confirmed by ELISPOT analyses, which detected that these vaccination protocols were able to elicit long-term IFN-γ and IL-2-secreting memory T-cells. Overall, these results show that our vaccine candidates generate, in mice, immune responses against regions within PvCSP that have been associated with protection against malaria in humans.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Oscar Bruna-Romero
- Departamento de Microbiologia, Imunologia e Parasitologia, CCB, UFSC, Brazil.
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The effect of helper epitopes and cellular localization of an antigen on the outcome of gene gun DNA immunization. Gene Ther 2014; 21:225-32. [PMID: 24385146 DOI: 10.1038/gt.2013.81] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/20/2013] [Revised: 11/06/2013] [Accepted: 12/03/2013] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
In DNA vaccination, CD4(+) T-cell help can be enhanced by fusion of a gene encoding an immunization protein with a foreign gene or its part providing T(h) epitopes. To study the effect of helper epitope localization in a protein molecule, the influence of the vicinity of the helper epitope, and the impact of chimeric protein cellular localization, we fused the helper epitope p30 from tetanus toxin (TT, aa 947-967) with the N- or C-terminus of the mutated E7 oncoprotein (E7GGG) of human papillomavirus type 16, enlarged the p30 epitope with the flanking residues containing potential protease-sensitive sites and altered the cellular localization of the fusion constructs by signal sequences. The p30 epitope enhanced the E7-specific response, but only in constructs without added signal sequences. After localization of the fusion proteins into the endoplasmic reticulum and endo/lysosomal compartment, the TT-specific T(h)2 response was increased. The synthetic Pan DR epitope (PADRE) induced a stronger E7-specific response than the p30 epitope and its stimulatory effect was not limited to nuclear/cytoplasmic localization of the E7 antigen. These results suggest that in the optimization of immune responses by adding helper epitopes to DNA vaccines delivered by the gene gun, the cellular localization of the antigen needs to be taken into account.
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Feng G, Jiang Q, Xia M, Lu Y, Qiu W, Zhao D, Lu L, Peng G, Wang Y. Enhanced immune response and protective effects of nano-chitosan-based DNA vaccine encoding T cell epitopes of Esat-6 and FL against Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. PLoS One 2013; 8:e61135. [PMID: 23637790 PMCID: PMC3634041 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0061135] [Citation(s) in RCA: 63] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2012] [Accepted: 03/05/2013] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Development of a novel and effective vaccine against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) is a challenging for preventing TB infection. In this study, a novel nanoparticle-based recombinant DNA vaccine was developed, which contains Esat-6 three T cell epitopes (Esat-6/3e) and fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 ligand (FL) genes (termed Esat-6/3e-FL), and was enveloped with chitosan (CS) nanoparticles (nano-chitosan). The immunologic and protective efficacy of the nano-chitosan-based DNA vaccine (termed nano-Esat-6/3e-FL) was assessed in C57BL/6 mice after intramuscular prime vaccination with the plasmids DNA and nasal boost with the Esat-6/3e peptides. The results showed that the immunized mice remarkably elicited enhanced T cell responses and protection against M.tb H37Rv challenge. These findings indicate that the nano-chitosan can significantly elevate the immunologic and protective effects of the DNA vaccine, and the nano-Esat-6/3e-FL is a useful vaccine for preventing M.tb infection in mice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ganzhu Feng
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China
| | - Qingtao Jiang
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China
| | - Mei Xia
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China
| | - Yanlai Lu
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China
| | - Wen Qiu
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China
| | - Dan Zhao
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China
| | - Liwei Lu
- Department of Pathology, Hong Kong University, Hong Kong, China
| | - Guangyong Peng
- Division of Infectious Diseases, Allergy and Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America
| | - Yingwei Wang
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China
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Short amyloid-β immunogens with spacer-enhanced immunogenicity without junctional epitopes for Alzheimer’s disease immunotherapy. Neuroreport 2012; 23:879-84. [DOI: 10.1097/wnr.0b013e328358a044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
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48
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Jalali SA, Sankian M, Tavakkol-Afshari J, Jaafari MR. Induction of tumor-specific immunity by multi-epitope rat HER2/neu-derived peptides encapsulated in LPD Nanoparticles. NANOMEDICINE-NANOTECHNOLOGY BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE 2012; 8:692-701. [DOI: 10.1016/j.nano.2011.09.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2011] [Revised: 09/17/2011] [Accepted: 09/24/2011] [Indexed: 02/02/2023]
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49
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Kulkarni R, Sapkal G, Mahishi L, Shil P, Gore MM. Design and characterization of polytope construct with multiple B and TH epitopes of Japanese encephalitis virus. Virus Res 2012; 166:77-86. [DOI: 10.1016/j.virusres.2012.03.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2011] [Revised: 02/27/2012] [Accepted: 03/06/2012] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
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50
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Iurescia S, Fioretti D, Fazio VM, Rinaldi M. Epitope-driven DNA vaccine design employing immunoinformatics against B-cell lymphoma: A biotech's challenge. Biotechnol Adv 2012; 30:372-83. [DOI: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2011.06.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2011] [Revised: 06/16/2011] [Accepted: 06/23/2011] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
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