TY - JOUR
T1 - Engineering superior DNA vaccines
T2 - MHC class I single chain trimers bypass antigen processing and enhance the immune response to low affinity antigens
AU - Li, Lijin
AU - Herndon, John M.
AU - Truscott, Steven M.
AU - Hansen, Ted H.
AU - Fleming, Timothy P.
AU - Goedegebuure, Peter
AU - Gillanders, William E.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by grants from Susan G. Komen for the Cure, KG080476 (W.E.G. and L.L.); Department of Defense , W81XWH-06-1-0677 (W.E.G.); National Institute of Health , AI055849 (T.H.H.); and Frank Cancer Research Fund , awarded by the Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation (P.G.).
PY - 2010/2/23
Y1 - 2010/2/23
N2 - It is commonly believed that delivery of antigen into the class I antigen presentation pathway is a limiting factor in the clinical translation of DNA vaccines. This is of particular concern in the context of cancer vaccine development as many immunodominant peptides derived from self tumor antigens are not processed and presented efficiently. To address this limitation, we have engineered completely assembled peptide/MHC class I complexes whereby all three components (class I heavy chain, β2m, and peptide) are attached by flexible linkers and expressed as a single polypeptide (single chain trimers or SCT). In this study, we tested the efficacy of progressive generations of SCT DNA vaccines engineered to (1) enhance peptide binding, (2) enhance interaction with the CD8 coreceptor, and/or (3) activate CD4+ helper T cells. Disulfide trap SCT (dtSCT) have been engineered to improve peptide binding, with mutations designed to create a disulfide bond between the class I heavy chain and the peptide linker. dtSCT DNA vaccines dramatically enhance the immune response to model low affinity antigens as measured by ELISPOT analysis and tumor challenge. SCT engineered to enhance interaction with the CD8 coreceptor have a higher affinity for the TCR/CD8 complex, and are associated with more robust CD8+ T cell responses following vaccination. Finally, SCT constructs that coexpress a universal helper epitope PADRE, dramatically enhance CD8+ T cell responses. Taken together, our data demonstrate that dtSCT DNA vaccines coexpressing a universal CD4 epitope are highly effective in generating immune responses to poorly processed and presented cancer antigens.
AB - It is commonly believed that delivery of antigen into the class I antigen presentation pathway is a limiting factor in the clinical translation of DNA vaccines. This is of particular concern in the context of cancer vaccine development as many immunodominant peptides derived from self tumor antigens are not processed and presented efficiently. To address this limitation, we have engineered completely assembled peptide/MHC class I complexes whereby all three components (class I heavy chain, β2m, and peptide) are attached by flexible linkers and expressed as a single polypeptide (single chain trimers or SCT). In this study, we tested the efficacy of progressive generations of SCT DNA vaccines engineered to (1) enhance peptide binding, (2) enhance interaction with the CD8 coreceptor, and/or (3) activate CD4+ helper T cells. Disulfide trap SCT (dtSCT) have been engineered to improve peptide binding, with mutations designed to create a disulfide bond between the class I heavy chain and the peptide linker. dtSCT DNA vaccines dramatically enhance the immune response to model low affinity antigens as measured by ELISPOT analysis and tumor challenge. SCT engineered to enhance interaction with the CD8 coreceptor have a higher affinity for the TCR/CD8 complex, and are associated with more robust CD8+ T cell responses following vaccination. Finally, SCT constructs that coexpress a universal helper epitope PADRE, dramatically enhance CD8+ T cell responses. Taken together, our data demonstrate that dtSCT DNA vaccines coexpressing a universal CD4 epitope are highly effective in generating immune responses to poorly processed and presented cancer antigens.
KW - Antigen processing
KW - DNA vaccine
KW - MHC class I
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=76949090828&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.vaccine.2009.10.096
DO - 10.1016/j.vaccine.2009.10.096
M3 - Article
C2 - 20188246
AN - SCOPUS:76949090828
SN - 0264-410X
VL - 28
SP - 1911
EP - 1918
JO - Vaccine
JF - Vaccine
IS - 8
ER -