Immunization with Plasmid DNA Encoding for the Measles Virus Hemagglutinin and Nucleoprotein Leads to Humoral and Cell-Mediated Immunity

Abstract

We have evaluated the DNA vaccination strategy for measles virus (MV) hemagglutinin (HA) and nucleoprotein (NP) genes. Plasmids encoding either the MV, HA, or NP proteins inoculated intramuscularly into Balb/c mice induced both humoral and CTL class I restricted responses. Antibody responses were not increased by multiple inoculations. The major antibody isotype induced by both the HA and NP was IgG2a consistent with a Th1 response. In contrast, immunization with a plasmid which directed the synthesis of a partially secreted form of HA gave mainly IgG1 antibodies. When the amount of DNA was reduced for the HA plasmid (1 or 10 microg/animal), although the antibody was not induced, a CTL response was observed.

DNA immunization circumvents deficient induction of T helper type 1 and cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses in neonates and during early life

“…The DNA-HA vaccine contains the membranebound MV-HA (9) encoding cDNA subcloned into the pV1J (10) plasmid (7). The TetC plasmid contains the synthetic gene encoding fragment C of tetanus toxin (TT) subcloned into the pcDNA3 (Invitrogen, R & D Systems) plasmid (8).…”

“…This question was addressed using several models of early-life immunization. We investigated the immunogenicity in early life of DNA plasmids encoding two model vaccine antigens, the measles virus hemagglutinin (MV-HA) and the fragment C of tetanus toxin (TetC), which can induce antigen-specific Th1-like or mixed Th1͞Th2 responses in adult BALB͞c mice (7,8). We extended our observations to a plasmid encoding another paramyxoviral antigen, the Sendai virus nucleoprotein (SV-NP), injected in the C57BL͞6 mouse strain known to differ in its indigenous polarization of immune responses.…”

Immunization with DNA vaccines in early life: Advantages and limitations as compared to conventional vaccines

“…The capacity of vaccines to induce specific responses at various stages of the immune maturation was assessed by immunizing mice intramuscularly prior to 3 weeks of age or as adults. Conventional and DNA vaccines were selected in view of their potential clinical significance to target potential infant pathogens such as measles { attenuated MV, immunodominant peptides of MV hemagglutinin (MV-HA), live recombinant canarypox (ALVAC-HA [26]) or DNA (MV-HA DNA [6]) vectors encoding MV-HA} and tetanus {tetanus toxoid (TT), immunodominant peptides of TT or DNA plasmid encoding its fragment C (TetC DNA [1])}.…”

Vaccination against malaria: targets, strategies and potentiation of immunity to blood stage parasites

“…In contrast, antigen retention in the cytosol may be appropriate for induction of CTL-based immunity, although long lasting high titer antibody responses can also be obtained with such protein localization (98,108,111). The cellular location of an antigen expressed following immunization of a DNA plasmid could also influence activation of a particular subset of Th cell, presumably by favoring the type of cell involved in antigen uptake, processing and presentation (103,104,112).…”