Prefiltration enhances performance of sterile filtration for glycoconjugate vaccines.

Recent studies have reported very low capacity during sterile filtration of glycoconjugate vaccines due to rapid fouling of the sterile filter. The objective of this study was to explore the potential for significantly increasing the capacity of the sterile filter through the use of an appropriate prefilter. Data were obtained using prefilters with different pore size and chemistry, with the sterile filtration performed at constant filtrate flux using 0.22 µm nominal pore size Durapore® polyvinylidene difluoride membranes. Prefiltration through 5 µm pore size Durapore® or Nylon prefilters nearly eliminated the fouling of the sterile filter, leading to more than a 100-fold reduction in the rate of pressure increase for the sterile filter. This dramatic improvement in sterile filter performance was due to the removal of large components (greater than 1 µm in size) as confirmed by dynamic light scattering. These results demonstrate the potential of using large pore size prefilters to significantly enhance the performance of the sterile filtration process for the production of important glycoconjugate vaccines.

Biosynthesis of Glycoconjugate Virus-like Particles (VLPs).

The outermost surface of bacterial pathogens consists primarily of complex carbohydrate structures-polysaccharides, glycolipids, and glycoproteins. To raise a long-lasting and effective immune response against carbohydrate antigens, they generally require covalent attachment to an immunogenic carrier protein-a so-called glycoconjugate vaccine. One hurdle to the development of glycoconjugate vaccines is that carbohydrate antigens remain inaccessible to recombinant production. Thus, the carbohydrate antigen is typically purified from the pathogen and then chemically conjugated to an immunogenic protein. Recent developments in the field of bacterial glycoengineering have opened the opportunity for total recombinant production of glycoconjugate vaccines. In this method, we describe the production of proteinaceous, virus-like particles (VLPs) bearing the conserved N-glycan of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae, the causative agent of porcine pleuropneumoniae.

Exploitation of Capsule Polymerases for Enzymatic Synthesis of Polysaccharide Antigens Used in Glycoconjugate Vaccines.

The exploitation of recombinant enzymes for the synthesis of complex carbohydrates is getting increasing attention. Unfortunately, the analysis of the resulting products often requires advanced methods like nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. Here, we use the capsule polymerases Cps4B and Cps11D from Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae serotypes 4 and 11, respectively, as examples for the in vitro synthesis of capsule polymers similar to those used in glycoconjugate vaccine formulations. We demonstrate how substrate turnover in an enzymatic reaction can be analyzed by HPLC-based anion exchange chromatography and provide the protocol for separation and detection of UV-active polymer. Moreover, we describe how UV-inactive polymer can be separated and visualized using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis followed by combined alcian blue-silver staining.

Safety of MenACWY-CRM vaccine exposure during pregnancy.

BACKGROUND: Although the meningococcal conjugate MenACWY-CRM vaccine is not approved for use in pregnant women, unintentional exposure during pregnancy can occur, especially during early pregnancy among women of child-bearing age. This study provides safety information about inadvertent MenACWY-CRM vaccination during pregnancy. METHODS: The evaluated population consisted of pregnant female members of Kaiser Permanente Southern California who inadvertently received MenACWY-CRM at 11-21 years of age during 09/30/2011-06/30/2013 within 28 days prior to conception or during pregnancy. Chart abstraction was conducted to identify pregnancy and birth outcomes, including spontaneous and induced abortions, preterm births, low weight births, and major congenital malformations (MCMs). RESULTS: There were 92 women who received MenACWY-CRM during the pregnancy exposure period, mainly during the first trimester (76.1%). Hispanics represented the largest race/ethnicity category (68.5%). Among the known pregnancy outcomes (n = 66; excluding induced abortions and unknown pregnancy outcomes), the prevalence of spontaneous abortions was 18.2% (n = 12). Among live born infants (n = 55; from 54 pregnancies), 14.5% (n = 8) were born preterm (<37 weeks gestation) and 9.1% (n = 5) had a low birthweight (<2500 g). The prevalence rate of MCMs among live born infants (n = 55) was 1.8% (n = 1). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides baseline prevalence estimates of spontaneous abortions, preterm births, low weight births, and MCMs among women inadvertently exposed to MenACWY-CRM during the pregnancy period. These estimates appear to be comparable with U.S. background prevalence estimates.

A platform for glycoengineering a polyvalent pneumococcal bioconjugate vaccine using E. coli as a host.

Chemical synthesis of conjugate vaccines, consisting of a polysaccharide linked to a protein, can be technically challenging, and in vivo bacterial conjugations (bioconjugations) have emerged as manufacturing alternatives. Bioconjugation relies upon an oligosaccharyltransferase to attach polysaccharides to proteins, but currently employed enzymes are not suitable for the generation of conjugate vaccines when the polysaccharides contain glucose at the reducing end, which is the case for ~75% of Streptococcus pneumoniae capsules. Here, we use an O-linking oligosaccharyltransferase to generate a polyvalent pneumococcal bioconjugate vaccine with polysaccharides containing glucose at their reducing end. In addition, we show that different vaccine carrier proteins can be glycosylated using this system. Pneumococcal bioconjugates are immunogenic, protective and rapidly produced within E. coli using recombinant techniques. These proof-of-principle experiments establish a platform to overcome limitations of other conjugating enzymes enabling the development of bioconjugate vaccines for many important human and animal pathogens.

Purification of a conjugated polysaccharide vaccine using tangential flow diafiltration.

Conjugated vaccines prepared from the capsular polysaccharide of Streptococcus pneumoniae can provide immunization against invasive pneumococcal disease, meningitis, and otitis media. One of the critical steps in the production of these vaccines is the removal of free (unreacted) polysaccharides from the protein-polysaccharide conjugate. Experimental studies were performed to evaluate the effects of membrane pore size, filtrate flux, and solution conditions on the transmission of both the conjugate and free polysaccharide through different ultrafiltration membranes. Conjugate purification was done using diafiltration performed in a linearly-scalable tangential flow filtration cassette. More than 98% of the free polysaccharide was removed within a 5-diavolume diafiltration process, which is a significant improvement over previously reported results for purification of similar conjugated vaccines. These results clearly demonstrate the opportunities for using ultrafiltration/diafiltration for the final purification of conjugated vaccine products.

Pneumococcal Vaccines: Host Interactions, Population Dynamics, and Design Principles.

Streptococcus pneumoniae (the pneumococcus) is a nasopharyngeal commensal and respiratory pathogen. Most isolates express a capsule, the species-wide diversity of which has been immunologically classified into ∼100 serotypes. Capsule polysaccharides have been combined into multivalent vaccines widely used in adults, but the T cell independence of the antibody response means they are not protective in infants. Polysaccharide conjugate vaccines (PCVs) trigger a T cell-dependent response through attaching a carrier protein to capsular polysaccharides. The immune response stimulated by PCVs in infants inhibits carriage of vaccine serotypes (VTs), resulting in population-wide herd immunity. These were replaced in carriage by non-VTs. Nevertheless, PCVs drove reductions in infant pneumococcal disease, due to the lower mean invasiveness of the postvaccination bacterial population; age-varying serotype invasiveness resulted in a smaller reduction in adult disease. Alternative vaccines being tested in trials are designed to provide species-wide protection through stimulating innate and cellular immune responses, alongside antibodies to conserved antigens.

Production and efficacy of a low-cost recombinant pneumococcal protein polysaccharide conjugate vaccine.

Streptococcus pneumoniae is the leading cause of bacterial pneumonia. Although this is a vaccine preventable disease, S. pneumoniae still causes over 1 million deaths per year, mainly in children under the age of five. The biggest disease burden is in the developing world, which is mainly due to unavailability of vaccines due to their high costs. Protein polysaccharide conjugate vaccines are given routinely in the developed world to children to induce a protective antibody response against S. pneumoniae. One of these vaccines is Prevnar13, which targets 13 of the 95 known capsular types. Current vaccine production requires growth of large amounts of the 13 serotypes, and isolation of the capsular polysaccharide that is then chemically coupled to a protein, such as the diphtheria toxoid CRM197, in a multistep expensive procedure. In this study, we design, purify and produce novel recombinant pneumococcal protein polysaccharide conjugate vaccines in Escherichia coli, which act as mini factories for the low-cost production of conjugate vaccines. Recombinant vaccine efficacy was tested in a murine model of pneumococcal pneumonia; ability to protect against invasive disease was compared to that of Prevnar13. This study provides the first proof of principle that protein polysaccharide conjugate vaccines produced in E. coli can be used to prevent pneumococcal infection. Vaccines produced in this manner may provide a low-cost alternative to the current vaccine production methodology.

Glycoengineered Outer Membrane Vesicles: A Novel Platform for Bacterial Vaccines.

The World Health Organization has indicated that we are entering into a post-antibiotic era in which infections that were routinely and successfully treated with antibiotics can now be lethal due to the global dissemination of multidrug resistant strains. Conjugate vaccines are an effective way to create a long-lasting immune response against bacteria. However, these vaccines present many drawbacks such as slow development, high price, and batch-to-batch inconsistencies. Alternate approaches for vaccine development are urgently needed. Here we present a new vaccine consisting of glycoengineered outer membrane vesicles (geOMVs). This platform exploits the fact that the initial steps in the biosynthesis of most bacterial glycans are similar. Therefore, it is possible to easily engineer non-pathogenic Escherichia coli lab strains to produce geOMVs displaying the glycan of the pathogen of interest. In this work we demonstrate the versatility of this platform by showing the efficacy of geOMVs as vaccines against Streptococcus pneumoniae in mice, and against Campylobacter jejuni in chicken. This cost-effective platform could be employed to generate vaccines to prevent infections caused by a wide variety of microbial agents in human and animals.

Whole glucan particles as a vaccine against systemic coccidioidomycosis.

We reported previously that yeast-derived whole glucan particles (WGPs), with or without conjugation to BSA, used as a vaccine protected against systemic aspergillosis in mice. Here, we examined their utility as a potential vaccine against coccidioidomycosis. WGPs were prepared from Saccharomyces cerevisiae; conjugation with BSA (WGP-BSA) was done using 1-cyano-4-dimethylaminopyridinium tetrafluoroborate-mediated conjugation. Heat-killed S. cerevisiae (HKY) was used as a positive-control vaccine. CD-1 mice were vaccinated with WGPs or WGP-BSA, HKY or PBS once weekly, beginning 21 days prior to infection. Mice were infected intravenously with arthroconidia of Coccidioides posadasii. In the low-mortality study, 50 % of PBS-treated controls died. Only WGP-BSA at 0.6 mg per dose induced significant protection compared with PBS treatment. All surviving mice were infected in all three organs examined. Those given WGP-BSA at 0.6 mg per dose had fewer c.f.u. in liver and lungs (P = 0.04), and those given WGPs at 6 mg per dose had fewer in lungs (P < 0.02), compared with PBS. In the high-mortality study, 90 % of PBS mice died. Vaccination with HKY, and WGPs or WGP-BSA at 6 or 12 mg per dose significantly prolonged survival (P ≤ 0.05). No surviving mice were free of infection. HKY and WGP-BSA at 12 mg per dose reduced c.f.u. in the liver and lungs (P < 0.05) and WGP-BSA at 6 mg per dose reduced c.f.u. in the lungs (P < 0.05); unconjugated WGPs did not reduce infection. WGPs or WGP-BSA acted as a vaccine that protected against mortality caused by coccidioidomycosis. Thus, WGP protection against coccidioidomycosis and aspergillosis provides the basis for development of a pan-fungal vaccine.

Development of a conjugate vaccine against invasive pneumococcal disease based on capsular polysaccharides coupled with PspA/family 1 protein of Streptococcus pneumoniae.

The efforts were focused on exploring alternative pneumococcal vaccine strategies, aimed at addressing the shortcomings of existing formulations, without compromising efficacy. Our strategy involved the use of the carrier protein, pneumococcal surface protein A (PspA), conjugated with capsular polysaccharides (CPS), to provide effective and non-serotype-dependent protection. In this study, we generated a stable Escherichia coli construct expressing functional PspA from a capsular serotype 6B strain and confirmed it belonging to family 1, which was conjugated with CPS. The distribution of anti-CPS antibody response was almost completely of IgG2a subclass followed by IgG3 and low level of IgG1 subclass, but that of anti-PspA IgG subclass antibodies was almost equal IgG1 and IgG2a subclasses. Though PspA was less conspicuous on the surface of pneumococci than the capsule, the antibodies induced with CPS-rPspA conjugate possessed more accessibility to the surface of Streptococcus pneumoniae serotype 6B and 19F (the same family 1 PspA). By survival experiment, the result suggested that the level of cross-protection after immunized with the conjugate was more measurable within the same family 1. The CPS-rPspA conjugate not only induced CPS-specific protection but also provided PspA specific cross-protection.

Use of immuno assays during the development of a Hemophilus influenzae type b vaccine for technology transfer to emerging vaccine manufacturers.

Quality control of Hemophilus Influenzae type b (Hib) conjugate vaccines is mainly dependent on physicochemical methods. Overcoming sample matrix interference when using physicochemical tests is very challenging, these tests are therefore only used to test purified samples of polysaccharide, protein, bulk conjugate, and final product. For successful development of a Hib conjugate vaccine, several ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) methods were needed as an additional tool to enable testing of in process (IP) samples. In this paper, three of the ELISA's that have been very valuable during the process development, implementation and scaling up are highlighted. The PRP-ELISA, was a very efficient tool in testing in process (IP) samples generated during the development of the cultivation and purification process of the Hib-polysaccharide. The antigenicity ELISA, was used to confirm the covalent linkage of PRP and TTd in the conjugate. The anti-PRP IgG ELISA was developed as part of the immunogenicity test, used to demonstrate the ability of the Hib conjugate vaccine to elicit a T-cell dependent immune response in mice. ELISA methods are relatively cheap and easy to implement and therefore very useful during the development of polysaccharide conjugate vaccines.

Whole glucan particles as a vaccine against murine aspergillosis.

Vaccination with heat-killed Saccharomyces cerevisiae (HKY) protects against experimental infection by pathogenic fungi of five genera. Here we tested whether purified Saccharomyces cell wall ß-glucan could induce protection against systemic aspergillosis. CD-1 mice were given three weekly vaccine doses subcutaneously prior to intravenous infection with Aspergillus fumigatus. Mice received PBS, 2.5 mg HKY, whole glucan particles (WGP), WGP conjugated to BSA (0.06 to 12 mg per dose), a soluble medium molecular mass (MMW) ß-glucan alone or MMW-BSA (≤24 mg per dose). Survival and c.f.u. were determined, and cytokine induction and anti-ß-glucan antibodies were assessed in vaccinated mice. Neither soluble MMW glucan, nor MMW-BSA was effective. HKY protected in two studies (survival and c.f.u. were reduced in brain and kidney organs, P<0.004). Six or 12 mg WGP or WGP-BSA prolonged survival (P≤0.004) and reduced c.f.u. in each organ (P≤0.015) in both experiments; 0.6 mg WGP or WGP-BSA prolonged survival (P≤0.015) and reduced c.f.u. (P≤0.015) in one experiment. Cytokine profiles in serum and bronchoalveolar lavage from uninfected vaccinated mice showed an innate and adaptive immune profile (i.e. upregulation of colony stimulating factors, interferons, TNF-α, chemokines such as MCP-1, MIP-1α, RANTES and KC, and Th17-activating cytokines such as IL-6, IL-1ß, IL-17). No anti-ß-glucan antibodies were in the sera, suggesting an adaptive T cell-mediated, not a B cell-mediated, protective response. Vaccination with WGP or WGP-BSA proved protective against systemic aspergillosis, equivalent to that of HKY, supporting the potential of particulate ß-glucans, alone or conjugated, as vaccines against aspergillosis.

Recent approaches in vaccine development against Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Streptococcus pneumoniae is a major cause of morbidity and mortality among children under 5 years of age worldwide. Vaccines have long been used for protection against pneumococcal infections. Capsular polysaccharides of pneumococci are main antigenic components of these vaccines. However, pneumococcal polysaccharide-based vaccines are not able to elicit appropriate immunological responses in young children and cannot induce the immune memory. Thus, pneumococcal conjugate vaccines were developed through chemical coupling of an immunogenic carrier protein to the capsule. The currently available pneumococcal conjugate vaccines elicited protection against the bacterium efficiently. However, these vaccines are expensive to manufacture and have limited serotype coverage. In this mini-review, therefore, we describe approaches attempted by researchers to circumvent the shortcomings of the conjugate vaccines including specifying appropriate cultivation conditions for the production of S. pneumoniae capsular antigens, development of suitable expression systems for the frequently used carrier protein in the conjugate vaccines (cross-reacting material 197), construction of protein-based vaccines, whole-cell vaccines, DNA vaccines, and using antigen delivery vehicles. Future trends in this field are also discussed.

A capsule conjugate vaccine approach to prevent diarrheal disease caused by Campylobacter jejuni.

Campylobacter jejuni is a major cause of diarrheal disease and results in high levels of morbidity and economic loss in both industrialized and developing regions of the world. To date, prior vaccine approaches have failed to confer protection against this enteric pathogen. Key challenges to the development of a practical Campylobacter vaccine for human use include a lack of understanding of Campylobacter pathogenesis and well-defined immune correlates of protection. With the discovery that C. jejuni expresses a capsule polysaccharide associated with virulence, a conjugate vaccine approach is currently being evaluated. Conjugate vaccines have been successfully developed and implemented against other invasive mucosal pathogens including Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria meningitidis, and Hemophilus influenzae. Furthermore, Shigella-based conjugate vaccines based on lipopolysaccharide have shown promising results in field trials. A prototype C. jejuni conjugate vaccine is currently entering human testing.

Synthesis and immunogenicity evaluation of Salmonella enterica serovar Paratyphi A O-specific polysaccharide conjugated to diphtheria toxoid.

Salmonella enterica serovar Paratyphi A (S. Paratyphi A) is a human restricted pathogen that can cause systemic infection (paratyphoid fever) with recently increased incidence particularly in developing countries. Currently there is no licensed vaccine for prevention of infection from S. Paratyphi A. In this study the O-specific polysaccharide (OSP) of S. Paratyphi A was conjugated to diphtheria toxoid (DT) with and without adipic acid dihydrazide (ADH) as a linker. Binding of the OSP to a carrier protein was intended to convert a T-cell independent OSP response to a T-cell dependent response inducing higher levels of anti-OSP antibodies and immunological memory. These conjugates (OSP-AH-DT and OSP-DT) were evaluated for their immunogenicity in mice. The S. Paratyphi A OSP-DT conjugate induced a poor anti-OSP response less than that observed with LPS while the OSP-AH-DT conjugate induced a significantly higher antibody titer compared with LPS alone. The study also demonstrated diphtheria toxoid as a potential carrier protein for conjugate vaccine candidates using S. Paratyphi A OSP.

The history of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine development: dose selection.

Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) differ in polysaccharide (PS) dose, carrier protein and conjugation method. PCV development proceeded initially upon principles successfully proven in Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) conjugate vaccine development. However, the need to successfully incorporate multiple serotypes while minimizing the total PS dose and total carrier protein load saw some early vaccine candidates fail. Dose-range studies of individual serotypes indicated that much lower PS doses were needed compared with Hib conjugate vaccines, although subsequent studies confirmed that lower Hib PS doses were possible. Furthermore, the immune response to individual serotype doses was carrier protein dependent. A 'one-size fits most' approach has characterized PS dose selection, but peculiarities of individual serotypes are increasingly apparent, raising the question whether re-formulation of PCVs to maximize individual serotype performance is needed.

Development of Vi conjugate - a new generation of typhoid vaccine.

Typhoid fever remains to be a serious disease burden worldwide with an estimated annual incidence about 20 million. The licensed vaccines showed moderate protections and have multiple deficiencies. Most important of all, none of the licensed typhoid vaccines demonstrated protection for children under 5 years old. These limitations impeded successful implementation of typhoid vaccination programs. To improve immunogenicity Vi was conjugated to rEPA, a recombinant exoprotein A from Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Vi-rEPA showed higher and longer lasting anti-Vi IgG in adults and children than Vi alone in high endemic areas. In school-age children and adults, the immunity persisted more than 8 years. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled and randomized efficacy trial in 2- to 5-year-old children, Vi-rEPA conferred 89% protective efficacy against typhoid fever and the protection lasted at least 4 years. When given concomitantly with infant routine vaccines, Vi-rEPA was safe, immunogenic and showed no interference with the routine vaccines. Vi conjugate vaccine was also attempted and successfully demonstrated by several other laboratories and manufactures. Using either rEPA or different carrier proteins, such as diphtheria or tetanus toxoid, recombinant diphtheria toxin (CRM197), the Vi conjugates synthesized was significantly more immunogenic than Vi alone. Recently, two Vi-tetanus toxoid conjugates were licensed in India for all ages, starts as young as 3 month old. This new generation of typhoid vaccine opens up a new era for typhoid prevention and elimination.

Development of pneumococcal polysaccharide conjugate vaccine with long spacer arm.

Streptococcus pneumoniae is a serious Gram-positive pathogen responsible for several life-threatening pneumococcal diseases. Pneumococcal capsular polysaccharide (CPS) is a key virulence determinant of S. pneumoniae and its immunogenicity can be improved by conjugation with a carrier protein. Reductive amination, the most widely used approach for pneumococcal CPS conjugate vaccine (PCV), suffers from low conjugation efficiency and the problem of steric hindrance. Here, copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition was used for development of PCV with long spacer arm (L-PCV). Tetanus toxoid (TT) was used as the carrier protein. The long spacer arm in L-PCV can minimize the problem of steric hindrance between CPS and TT, thereby improving the CPS-specific antibody titers in the mice model. L-PCV can also induce high avidity functional antibody and elicit immunological memory in response to the native CPS.

Priorities for research on meningococcal disease and the impact of serogroup A vaccination in the African meningitis belt.

For over 100 years, large epidemics of meningococcal meningitis have occurred every few years in areas of the African Sahel and sub-Sahel known as the African meningitis belt. Until recently, the main approach to the control of these epidemics has been reactive vaccination with a polysaccharide vaccine after an outbreak has reached a defined threshold and provision of easy access to effective treatment but this approach has not prevented the occurrence of new epidemics. Meningococcal conjugate vaccines, which can prevent meningococcal carriage and thus interrupt transmission, may be more effective than polysaccharide vaccines at preventing epidemics. Because the majority of African epidemics have been caused by serogroup A meningococci, a serogroup A polysaccharide/tetanus toxoid protein conjugate vaccine (PsA-TT) has recently been developed. Results from an initial evaluation of the impact of this vaccine on meningococcal disease and meningococcal carriage in Burkina Faso have been encouraging. To review how the research agenda for meningococcal disease in Africa has been changed by the advent of PsA-TT and to define a new set of research priorities for study of meningococcal infection in Africa, a meeting of 41 scientists was held in Dakar, Senegal on April 24th and 25th 2012. The research recommendations developed during the course of this meeting are presented in this paper. The need for enhanced surveillance for meningitis in defined populations with good diagnostic facilities in African countries at risk of epidemics was identified as the highest priority. This is needed to determine the duration of protection against serogroup A meningococcal disease provided by PsA-TT and to determine the risk of disease and carriage caused by meningococci of other serogroups. Other research areas given high priority included identification and validation of serological correlates of protection against meningococcal disease and carriage, development of improved methods for detecting carriage and epidemiological studies aimed at determining the reasons underlying the peculiar epidemiology of meningococcal disease in the African meningitis belt. Minutes and working papers from the meeting are provided in supplementary tables and some of the presentations made at the meeting are available on the MenAfriCar consortium website (www.menafricar.org) and on the web site of the Centers for Disease Control (www.cdc.gov).