Recombinant BCG expressing HTI prime and recombinant ChAdOx1 boost is safe and elicits HIV-1-specific T-cell responses in BALB/c mice

Despite the availability of anti-retroviral therapy, HIV-1 infection remains a massive burden on healthcare systems. Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), the only licensed vaccine against tuberculosis, confers protection against meningitis and miliary tuberculosis in infants. Recombinant BCG has been use...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Kilpeläinen, Athina, Saubi, Narcis|||0000-0001-5493-1044, Guitart, Núria, Olvera, Alex|||0000-0002-9934-5759, Hanke, Tomáš|||0000-0002-6076-9546, Brander, Christian|||0000-0002-0548-5778, Joseph, Joan
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:223007
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/223007
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.3390/vaccines7030078
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:BCG
HIV
Vaccine
Rbcg
HTI
T-cell
Descripción
Sumario:Despite the availability of anti-retroviral therapy, HIV-1 infection remains a massive burden on healthcare systems. Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), the only licensed vaccine against tuberculosis, confers protection against meningitis and miliary tuberculosis in infants. Recombinant BCG has been used as a vaccine vehicle to express both HIV-1 and Simian Immunodeficiemcy Virus (SIV) immunogens. In this study, we constructed an integrative E. coli-mycobacterial shuttle plasmid, p2auxo.HTI.int, expressing the HIVACAT T-cell immunogen (HTI). The plasmid was transformed into a lysine auxotrophic Mycobacterium bovis BCG strain (BCG∆Lys) to generate the vaccine BCG.HTI. The DNA sequence coding for the HTI immunogen and HTI protein expression were confirmed, and working vaccine stocks were genetically and phenotypically characterized. We demonstrated that the vaccine was stable in vitro for 35 bacterial generations, and that when delivered in combination with chimpanzee adenovirus (ChAd)Ox1.HTI in adult BALB/c mice, it was well tolerated and induced HIV-1-specific T-cell responses. Specifically, priming with BCG.HTI doubled the magnitude of the T-cell response in comparison with ChAdOx1.HTI alone while maintaining its breadth. The use of integrative expression vectors and novel HIV-1 immunogens can aid in improving mycobacterial vaccine stability as well as specific immunogenicity. This vaccine candidate may be a useful tool in the development of an effective vaccine platform for priming protective responses against HIV-1/TB and other prevalent pediatric pathogens.