Vaccine Platforms Combining Circumsporozoite Protein and Potent Immune Modulators, rEA or EAT-2, Paradoxically Result in Opposing Immune Responses

Malaria greatly impacts the health and wellbeing of over half of the world's population. Promising malaria vaccine candidates have attempted to induce adaptive immune responses to Circumsporozoite (CS) protein. Despite the inclusion of potent adjuvants, these vaccines have limited protective efficacy. Conventional recombinant adenovirus (rAd) based vaccines expressing CS protein can induce CS protein specific immune responses, but these are essentially equivalent to those generated after use of the CS protein subunit based vaccines. In this study we combined the use of rAds expressing CS protein along with rAds expressing novel innate immune response modulating proteins in an attempt to significantly improve the induction of CS protein specific cell mediated immune (CMI) responses.BALB/cJ mice were co-vaccinated with a rAd vectors expressing CS protein simultaneous with a rAd expressing either TLR agonist (rEA) or SLAM receptors adaptor protein (EAT-2). Paradoxically, expression of the TLR agonist uncovered a potent immunosuppressive activity inherent to the combined expression of the CS protein and rEA. Fortunately, use of the rAd vaccine expressing EAT-2 circumvented CS protein's suppressive activity, and generated a fivefold increase in the number of CS protein responsive, IFNγ secreting splenocytes, as well as increased the breadth of T cells responsive to peptides present in the CS protein. These improvements were positively correlated with the induction of a fourfold improvement in CS protein specific CTL functional activity in vivo.Our results emphasize the need for caution when incorporating CS protein into malaria vaccine platforms expressing or containing other immunostimulatory compounds, as the immunological outcomes may be unanticipated and/or counter-productive. However, expressing the SLAM receptors derived signaling adaptor EAT-2 at the same time of vaccination with CS protein can overcome these concerns, as well as significantly improve the induction of malaria antigen specific adaptive immune responses in vivo

A New Adenovirus Based Vaccine Vector Expressing an Eimeria tenella Derived TLR Agonist Improves Cellular Immune Responses to an Antigenic Target

Adenoviral based vectors remain promising vaccine platforms for use against numerous pathogens, including HIV. Recent vaccine trials utilizing Adenovirus based vaccines expressing HIV antigens confirmed induction of cellular immune responses, but these responses failed to prevent HIV infections in vaccinees. This illustrates the need to develop vaccine formulations capable of generating more potent T-cell responses to HIV antigens, such as HIV-Gag, since robust immune responses to this antigen correlate with improved outcomes in long-term non-progressor HIV infected individuals.. Moreover, we show that these improved responses were dependent upon improved TLR pathway interactions.The data presented in this study illustrate the potential utility of Ad-based vectors expressing TLR agonists to improve clinical outcomes dependent upon induction of robust, antigen specific immune responses

Campylobacter jejuni-Induced Activation of Dendritic Cells Involves Cooperative Signaling through Toll-Like Receptor 4 (TLR4)-MyD88 and TLR4-TRIF Axes▿

Campylobacter jejuni is an important cause of human enteritis and has been linked to the development of autoimmune diseases. Recently we showed that infection of murine dendritic cells (DCs) with C. jejuni resulted in DC activation and induction of Campylobacter-specific Th1-effector responses. Toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling through myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88) and/or Toll-interleukin 1 (IL-1) receptor domain-containing adaptor-inducing beta interferon (IFN-β) (TRIF) is critical in inducing immunity against pathogens. In this study, we investigated the role of TLR2, TLR4, MyD88, and TRIF signaling in C. jejuni-induced inflammatory activation of DCs. DC upregulation of major histocompatibility complex class II and costimulatory molecules after C. jejuni challenge was profoundly impaired by TLR2, TLR4, MyD88, and TRIF deficiencies. Similarly, C. jejuni-induced secretion of IL-12, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor alpha was significantly inhibited in TLR2−/−, TLR4−/−, MyD88−/−, and TRIF−/− DCs compared to that in wild-type DCs; however, the magnitude of inhibition was greater in MyD88−/−, TRIF−/−, and TLR4−/− DCs than in TLR2−/− DCs. Furthermore, C. jejuni induced interferon regulatory factor 3 phosphorylation and IFN-β secretion by DCs in a TLR4-TRIF-dependent fashion, further demonstrating activation of this pathway by C. jejuni. Importantly, TLR2, TLR4, MyD88, and TRIF deficiencies all markedly impaired the Th1-priming ability of C. jejuni-infected DCs. Thus, our results show that cooperative signaling through the TLR4-MyD88 and TLR4-TRIF axes represents a novel mechanism mediating C. jejuni-induced inflammatory responses of DCs. To our knowledge, such a mechanism has not been demonstrated previously for an intact bacterium

TRIF Is a Critical Negative Regulator of TLR Agonist Mediated Activation of Dendritic Cells In Vivo

Despite recent advances in developing and licensing adjuvants, there is a great need for more potent formulations to enhance immunogenicity of vaccines. An Eimeria tenella derived antigen (rEA) augments immune responses against several pathogens in animal models and recently was confirmed to be safe for human use. In this study, we have analyzed the molecular mechanisms underlying rEA activity in mice, and confirmed that rEA activates multiple immune cell types, including DCs, macrophages, NK, B, and T cells. The rEA adjuvant also elicits the induction of pleiotropic pro-inflammatory cytokines, responses that completely depend upon the presence of the TLR adaptor protein MyD88. Surprisingly, we also found that the TRIF adaptor protein acts as a potent negative regulator of TLR agonist-triggered immune responses. For example, IL12 production and the induction of co-stimulatory molecule expression by DCs and IFNc production by NK cells in vivo were significantly increased in rEA-treated TRIF-KO mice. Importantly, however, TRIF suppressive effects were not restricted to rEA-mediated responses, but were apparent in LPS- or ODN2006-activated DCs as well. Taken together, our findings confirm that rEA is a potent adjuvant, triggering robust activation of the innate immune system, in a manner that is augmented by MyD88 and inhibited by TRIF; thereby unveiling the potential complexities of modulating TLR activity t

Transient Pretreatment With Glucocorticoid Ablates Innate Toxicity of Systemically Delivered Adenoviral Vectors Without Reducing Efficacy

More than 300 human clinical trials utilize recombinant adenoviruses (rAds) as a gene transfer vector, confirming that rAds continue to be of high clinical interest. A primary weakness of rAds is their known propensity to trigger an innate, proinflammatory immune response rapidly after high-dose, systemic administration. In this study, we investigated what affects that pre-emptive treatment with anti-inflammatory glucocorticoids might have upon Ad vector-triggered inflammatory immune responses. We found that a simple pretreatment regimen with Dexamethasone (DEX) can significantly reduce most Ad-induced innate immune responses. DEX prevented rAd induction of systemic cytokine/chemokine releases in a dose-dependent fashion, with higher dosages preventing rAd induction of acute thrombocytopenia, endothelial cell activation, proinflammatory gene induction, and leukocyte infiltration into transduced organs. Transient glucocorticoid pretreatment also significantly reduced rAd-induced adaptive immune responses, including a decreased induction of Ad-neutralizing antibodies (NAbs). Importantly, use of DEX did not reduce the efficacy of rAd-mediated gene transduction nor rAd-derived transgene expression. Our results demonstrate that a simple, pre-emptive and transient glucocorticoid pretreatment is a viable approach to reduce rAd-associated acute toxicities that currently limit the use of Ad vectors in systemic clinical applications