Humoral and cellular immune responses of dogs immunized with a nucleic acid vaccine encoding human carcinoembryonic antigen

A nucleic acid vaccine encoding human carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) was administered to 10 juvenile dogs, 10-15 weeks of age, by four parenteral routes. The routes tested were intramuscular injection using a needle and syringe, intramuscular injection using the Biojector needleless injection device, intradermal injection or intravenous injection. All groups received 150 μg of plasmid DNA on weeks 0, 4, 7 and 13. All dogs were bled weekly for 17 weeks and tested for antibody against human CEA. Dogs given plasmid intramuscularly either by needle and syringe or Biojector showed significant antibody responses by week 9 which peaked by week 15. Dogs receiving plasmid intravenously showed slight, unsustained increases in antibody titers while dogs receiving plasmid intradermally had significant titers, but at levels approximately one log less than those induced by intramuscular injection. The five dogs immunized by intramuscular delivery of plasmid DNA were examined for cellular immune responses to human CEA by lymphoblast transformation (LBT) assay. All five showed significant CEA-specific lymphoproliferation when compared with unvaccinated dogs. Physical examination, clinical chemistry, hematology and histopathology examinations revealed no abnormalities associated with nucleic acid immunization.