DNA vaccination by intradermal electroporation induces long-lasting immune responses in rhesus macaques.

BACKGROUND: A desirable HIV vaccine should induce protective long-lasting humoral and cellular immune responses. METHODS: Macaques were immunized by env DNA, selected from a panel of recently transmitted SIVmac251 Env using intradermal electroporation as vaccine delivery method and magnitude, breadth and longevity of humoral and cellular immune responses. RESULTS: The macaques developed high, long-lasting humoral immune responses with neutralizing capacity against homologous and heterologous Env. The avidity of the antibody responses was also preserved over 1-year follow-up. Analysis of cellular immune responses demonstrated induction of Env-specific memory T cells harboring granzyme B, albeit their overall levels were low. Similar to the humoral responses, the cellular immunity was persistent over the ~1-year follow-up. CONCLUSION: These data show that vaccination by this intradermal DNA delivery regimen is able to induce potent and durable immune responses in macaques.

In vivo electroporation and non-protein based screening assays to identify antibodies against native protein conformations.

In vivo electroporation has become a gold standard method for DNA immunization. The method assists the DNA entry into cells, results in expression and the display of the native form of antigens to professional cells of the immune system, uses both arms of immune system, has a built-in adjuvant system, is relatively safe, and is cost-effective. However, there are challenges for achieving an optimized reproducible process for eliciting strong humoral responses and for the screening of specific immune responses, in particular, when the aim is to mount humoral responses or to generate monoclonal antibodies via hybridoma technology. Production of monoclonal antibodies demands generation of high numbers of primed B and CD4 T helper cells in lymphoid organs needed for the fusion that traditionally is achieved by a final intravenous antigen injection. The purified antigen is also needed for screening of hundreds of clones obtained upon fusion of splenocytes. Such challenges make DNA vaccination dependent on purified proteins. Here, we have optimized methods for in vivo electroporation, production, and use of cells expressing the antigen and an in-cell Western screening method. These methods resulted in (1) reproducibly mounting robust humoral responses against antigens with different cell localizations, and (2) the ability to screen for antigen eliminating a need for protein/antigen purification. This process includes optimized parameters for in vivo electroporation, the use of transfected cells for final boost, and mild fixation/permeabilization of cells for screening. Using this process, upon two vaccinations via in vivo electroporation (and final boost), monoclonal antibodies against nucleus and cytoplasmic and transmembrane proteins were achieved.

Biodistribution, persistence and lack of integration of a multigene HIV vaccine delivered by needle-free intradermal injection and electroporation.

It is likely that gene-based vaccines will enter the human vaccine area soon. A few veterinary vaccines employing this concept have already been licensed, and a multitude of clinical trials against infectious diseases or different forms of cancer are ongoing. Highly important when developing novel vaccines are the safety aspects and also new adjuvants and delivery techniques needs to be carefully investigated so that they meet all short- and long-term safety requirements. One novel in vivo delivery method for plasmid vaccines is electroporation, which is the application of short pulses of electric current immediately after, and at the site of, an injection of a genetic vaccine. This method has been shown to significantly augment the transfection efficacy and the subsequent vaccine-specific immune responses. However, the dramatic increase in delivery efficacy offered by electroporation has raised concerns of potential increase in the risk of integration of plasmid DNA into the host genome. Here, we demonstrate the safety and lack of integration after immunization with a high dose of a multigene HIV-1 vaccine delivered intradermally using the needle free device Biojector 2000 together with electroporation using Derma Vax™ DNA Vaccine Skin Delivery System. We demonstrate that plasmids persist in the skin at the site of injection for at least four months after immunization. However, no association between plasmid DNA and genomic DNA could be detected as analyzed by qPCR following field inversion gel electrophoresis separating heavy and light DNA fractions. We will shortly initiate a phase I clinical trial in which healthy volunteers will be immunized with this multiplasmid HIV-1 vaccine using a combination of the delivery methods jet-injection and intradermal electroporation.

Optimization of skin electroporation in mice to increase tolerability of DNA vaccine delivery to patients.

Electroporation has, during the last years, proven to be a very successful delivery method for DNA vaccines and has now reached clinical evaluation. Although intramuscular electroporation is practical in animal models, intradermal electroporation might be more suitable for clinical administration. Skin is the most accessible organ of the body and has professional antigen-presenting cells in large amounts; thus, skin is an ideal target for DNA vaccine delivery. Moreover, intradermal electroporation has clear clinical benefits such as improved safety and tolerability. This article describes improvements for effective and tolerable DNA delivery to skin. The time of pulse delivery has been shortened by 90% and even pulse programs of 240-ms total duration generate robust immune responses. We show that a single vaccination using an optimized gene delivery generates (i) high and consistent protein expression in vivo, (ii) cytotoxic antigen-specific T cells expressing both IFNgamma and CD107a (lysosomal-associated membrane protein 1). Furthermore, application of a topical anesthetic cream prior to vaccination does not affect the number or function of the antigen-specific T cells induced. This suggests that local anesthesia can be used to further decrease the sensation of pulse delivery in patients.

Smallpox DNA vaccine delivered by novel skin electroporation device protects mice against intranasal poxvirus challenge.

Previously, we demonstrated that an experimental smallpox DNA vaccine comprised of four vaccinia virus genes (4pox) administered by gene gun elicited protective immunity in mice challenged with vaccinia virus, and in nonhuman primates challenged with monkeypox virus (Hooper JW, et al. Smallpox DNA vaccine protects nonhuman primates against lethal monkeypox. J Virol 2004;78:4433-43). Here, we report that this 4pox DNA vaccine can be efficiently delivered by a novel method involving skin electroporation using plasmid DNA-coated microneedle arrays. Mice vaccinated with the 4pox DNA vaccine mounted robust antibody responses against the four immunogens-of-interest, including neutralizing antibody titers that were greater than those elicited by the traditional live virus vaccine administered by scarification. Moreover, vaccinated mice were completely protected against a lethal (>10LD(50)) intranasal challenge with vaccinia virus strain IHD-J. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a protective immune response being elicited by microneedle-mediated skin electroporation.

High efficiency gene delivery into laryngeal muscle with bidirectional electroporation.

OBJECTIVE: The impact of polarity change on the efficiency of in vivo electroporative (EP) gene transfection was assessed in rat laryngeal muscle. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: High (HV) and low field voltage (LV) were combined with polarity changes to determine transfection in 5 different conditions: 1) without EP (EP[-]), 2) HV+LV (HL), 3) HV+LV followed by HV+LV with no change in polarity (HLHL unidirectional), 4) HV+LV followed by HV+LV with opposite polarity (HLHL bidirectional), 5) HV+LV followed by LV with opposite polarity (HLL bidirectional). RESULTS: HLL bidirectional sequence showed the best result with less interindividual variability and extended expression period. With the exception of repeated high voltage sequences, EP parameters were not likely to induce cell injury or inflammation. CONCLUSION: HLL bidirectional electroporative gene delivery produces high transfection rates with limited tissue trauma. SIGNIFICANCE: Bidirectional EP provides a safe and highly efficient method for therapeutic gene delivery into skeletal muscle.

Generation of dendritic cell-tumor cell hybrids by electrofusion for clinical vaccine application.

Vaccination with hybrids comprising fused dendritic cells (DCs) and tumor cells is a novel cancer immunotherapy approach designed to combine tumor antigenicity with the antigen-presenting and immune-stimulatory capacities of DCs. For clinical purposes, we have incorporated a large-scale process for the generation of clinical-grade DCs together with novel electrofusion technology. The electrofusion system provides for ease and standardization of method, efficient DC-tumor cell hybrid formation, and large-quantity production of hybrids in a high-volume (6-ml) electrofusion chamber. In addition, we have evaluated DC electrofusion with a variety of allogeneic human tumor cell lines with the rationale that these tumor cell partners would prove a ready, suitable source for the generation of DC-tumor cell hybrid vaccines. The DC production process can generate 6x10(8) to 2x10(9) DCs from a single leukapheresis product (approximately 180 ml). As determined by FACS analysis, electrofusion of 6x10(7) total cells (1:1 ratio of DC and tumor cells) resulted in a consistent average of 8-10% DC-tumor cell hybrids, irrespective of the tumor type used. Hybrids were retained in the population for 48 h postfusion and following freezing and thawing. Upon pre-irradiation of the tumor cell partner for vaccine purposes, the overall fusion efficiency was not altered at doses up to 200 Gy. Evaluation of DC-tumor cell hybrid populations for their ability to stimulate T-cell responses demonstrated that electrofused populations are superior to mixed populations of DCs and tumor cells in generating a primary T-cell response, as indicated by IFN-gamma release. Moreover, hybrids comprising HLA-A*0201 DCs and allogeneic melanoma tumor cells (Colo 829 cell line) stimulated IFN-gamma secretion by antigen-specific CD8+ T cells, which are restricted for recognition of a melanoma gp100 peptide antigen (gp100(209-217)) within the context of the DC HLA haplotype. Maturation of the DC-Colo 829 cell hybrid population served to further improve this T-cell gp100-specific response. Overall, our results are promising for the large-scale generation of electrofused hybrids comprising DCs and allogeneic tumor cells, that may prove useful in human vaccine trials.

Vaccination of human volunteers with monovalent and tetravalent live-attenuated dengue vaccine candidates.

Four serotypes of monovalent live attenuated dengue virus vaccine candidates were tested for reactogenicity and immunogenicity in 49 flavivirus non-immune adult human volunteers. The four monovalent candidates were then combined into a tetravalent formulation and given to another 10 volunteers. Neutralizing antibody seroconversion rates after a single-dose monovalent vaccination ranged from 53% to 100%. Solicited reactogenicity was scored by each volunteer. A composite index, the Reactogenicity Index, was derived by these self-reported scores. Reactogenicity differed among the four serotype candidates with serotype-1 associated with the most vaccine related side effects. A second dose of monovalent vaccines at either 30 days or 90 days was much less reactogenic but did not significantly increase seroconversion rates. Seroconversion rates in the 10 volunteers who received a single dose of tetravalent vaccine ranged from 30% to 70% among the four serotypes. Similar to the monovalent vaccines, a second dose of the tetravalent vaccine at one month was less reactogenic and did not increase seroconversion. A third dose of the tetravalent vaccine at four months resulted in three of four volunteers with trivalent or tetravalent high-titer neutralizing antibody responses.

Serotype-specific T(H)1 responses in recipients of two doses of candidate live-attenuated dengue virus vaccines.

As part of a larger vaccine study, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were collected from volunteers for analysis of vaccine-induced T cell responses. The PBMC were re-stimulated in vitro with live dengue virus and assayed for T(H)1 or T(H)2 memory cell responses. Re-stimulated PBMC from the volunteers predominantly secreted interferon-gamma. Little interleukin-4 (IL-4) or IL-10 secretion was detected, indicating a T(H)1 type of T cell response. The interferon-gamma response was primarily serotype-specific with some serotype cross-reactivity. T cell depletion studies showed that the interferon-gamma was being secreted by CD4+ T lymphocytes and/or by cells other than CD8+ T lymphocytes that were being stimulated by the CD4+ T lymphocytes. CD3+ or CD8+ T cell depletion showed that granzyme B mRNA expression correlated with the presence of CD4+ T lymphocytes. However, depletion of CD4+ T cells after four days of stimulation indicated that the granzyme B mRNA was produced by cells in culture other than lymphocytes. In summary, an antigen-specific T(H)1 type T cell response was seen as a response to vaccination using live attenuated dengue virus.