Engineering superior DNA vaccines: MHC class I single chain trimers bypass antigen processing and enhance the immune response to low affinity antigens

Lijin Li, John M. Herndon, Steven M. Truscott, Ted H. Hansen, Timothy P. Fleming, Peter Goedegebuure, William E. Gillanders

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Scopus citations

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1911-1918
Number of pages8
JournalVaccine
Volume28
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 23 2010

Keywords

  • Antigen processing
  • DNA vaccine
  • MHC class I

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