Abstract
Showing modest efficacy, the RV144 HIV-1 vaccine clinical trial utilized a non-replicating canarypox viral vector and a soluble gp120 protein boost. Here we built upon the RV144 strategy by developing a novel combination of a replicating, but highly-attenuated Vaccinia virus vector, NYVAC-KC, and plant-produced HIV-1 virus-like particles (VLPs). Both components contained the full-length Gag and a membrane anchored truncated gp41 presenting the membrane proximal external region with its conserved broadly neutralizing epitopes in the pre-fusion conformation. We tested different prime/boost combinations of these components in mice and showed that the group primed with NYVAC-KC and boosted with both the viral vectors and plant-produced VLPs have the most robust Gag-specific CD8 T cell responses, at 12.7% of CD8 T cells expressing IFN-γ in response to stimulation with five Gag epitopes. The same immunization group elicited the best systemic and mucosal antibody responses to Gag and dgp41 with a bias towards IgG1.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 242-256 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Virology |
Volume | 507 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 1 2017 |
Keywords
- Electron microscopy
- HIV-1
- Live vector vaccines
- Prime/boost
- Subunit vaccines
- Tobacco mosaic virus
- Vaccinia virus
- Virus-like particles
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Virology