scholarly journals Combination of a Sindbis-SARS-CoV-2 spike vaccine and αOX40 antibody elicits protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2 induced disease and potentiates long-term SARS-CoV-2-specific humoral and T-cell immunity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonella Scaglione ◽  
Silvana Opp ◽  
Alicia Hurtado ◽  
Christine Pampeno ◽  
Ziyan Lin ◽  
...  

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is a major global public threat. Currently, a worldwide effort has been mounted to generate billions of effective SARS-CoV-2 vaccine doses to immunize the world population at record speeds. However, there is still demand for alternative effective vaccines that rapidly confer long-term protection and rely upon cost-effective, easily scaled-up manufacturing. Here, we present a Sindbis alphavirus vector (SV), transiently expressing the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (SV.Spike), combined with the OX40 immunostimulatory antibody (OX40) as a novel, highly effective vaccine approach. We show that SV.Spike plus αOX40 elicits long-lasting neutralizing antibodies and a vigorous T cell response in mice. Protein binding, immunohistochemical and cellular infection assays all show that vaccinated mice sera inhibits spike functions. Immunophenotyping, RNA Seq transcriptome profiles and metabolic analysis indicate a reprogramming of T cells in vaccinated mice. Activated T cells were found to mobilize to lung tissue. Most importantly, SV.Spike plus αOX40 provided robust immune protection against infection with authentic coronavirus in transgenic mice expressing the human ACE2 receptor (hACE2-Tg). Finally, our immunization strategy induced strong effector memory response, potentiating protective immunity against re-exposure to SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Our results show the potential of a new Sindbis virus-based vaccine platform to counteract waning immune response that can be used as a new candidate to combat SARS-CoV-2. Given the strong T cell responses elicited, our vaccine is likely to be effective against variants that are proving challenging, as well as, serve as a platform to develop a broader spectrum pancoronavirus vaccine. Similarly, the vaccine approach is likely to be applicable to other pathogens.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonella Scaglione ◽  
Silvana Opp ◽  
Alicia Hurtado ◽  
Ziyan Lin ◽  
Christine Pampeno ◽  
...  

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is a major global public threat. Currently, a worldwide effort has been mounted to generate billions of effective SARS-CoV-2 vaccine doses to immunize the world’s population at record speeds. However, there is still a demand for alternative effective vaccines that rapidly confer long-term protection and rely upon cost-effective, easily scaled-up manufacturing. Here, we present a Sindbis alphavirus vector (SV), transiently expressing the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (SV.Spike), combined with the OX40 immunostimulatory antibody (αOX40) as a novel, highly effective vaccine approach. We show that SV.Spike plus αOX40 elicits long-lasting neutralizing antibodies and a vigorous T-cell response in mice. Protein binding, immunohistochemical, and cellular infection assays all show that vaccinated mice sera inhibits spike functions. Immunophenotyping, RNA Seq transcriptome profiles, and metabolic analysis indicate a reprogramming of T cells in vaccinated mice. Activated T cells were found to mobilize to lung tissue. Most importantly, SV.Spike plus αOX40 provided robust immune protection against infection with authentic coronavirus in transgenic mice expressing the human ACE2 receptor (hACE2-Tg). Finally, our immunization strategy induced strong effector memory response, potentiating protective immunity against re-exposure to SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Our results show the potential of a new Sindbis virus-based vaccine platform to counteract waning immune response, which can be used as a new candidate to combat SARS-CoV-2. Given the T-cell responses elicited, our vaccine is likely to be effective against variants that are proving challenging, as well as serve as a platform to develop a broader spectrum pancoronavirus vaccine. Similarly, the vaccine approach is likely to be applicable to other pathogens.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean A. Nelson ◽  
Thamotharampillai Dileepan ◽  
Amy Rasley ◽  
Marc K. Jenkins ◽  
Nicholas O. Fischer ◽  
...  

Lung-localized CD4 T cells play a critical role in the control of influenza virus infection and can provide broadly protective immunity. However, current influenza vaccination strategies primarily target influenza hemagglutinin (HA) and are administered peripherally to induce neutralizing antibodies. We have used an intranasal vaccination strategy targeting the highly conserved influenza nucleoprotein (NP) to elicit broadly protective lung localized CD4 T cell responses. The vaccine platform consists of a self-assembling nanolipoprotein particle (NLP) linked to NP with an adjuvant. We have evaluated the functionality, in vivo localization and persistence of T cells elicited. Our study revealed that intranasal vaccination elicits a polyfunctional subset of lung-localized CD4 T cells that persist long term. A subset of these lung CD4 T cells localize to the airway, where they can act as early responders following encounter with cognate antigen. Polyfunctional CD4 cells isolated from airway and lung tissue produce significantly more effector cytokines IFNγ and TNFα as well as cytotoxic functionality. When adoptively transferred to naïve recipients, CD4 T cells from NLP:NP immunized lung were sufficient to mediate 100% survival from lethal challenge with H1N1 influenza virus. Importance Exploiting new, more efficacious strategies to potentiate influenza-specific immune responses is important, particularly for at-risk populations. We have demonstrated the promise of direct intranasal protein vaccination to establish long-lived immunity in the lung with CD4 T cells that possess features and positioning in the lung that are associated with both immediate and long-term immunity, as well as demonstrating direct protective potential.


2000 ◽  
Vol 355 (1400) ◽  
pp. 1093-1101 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. C. Doherty ◽  
J. M. Riberdy ◽  
G. T. Belz

The recent development of techniques for the direct staining of peptide–specific CD8 + T cells has revolutionized the analysis of cell–mediated immunity (CMI) in virus infections. This approach has been used to quantify the acute and long–term consequences of infecting laboratory mice with the readily eliminated influenza A viruses (fluA) and a persistent γherpesvirus (γHV). It is now, for the first time, possible to work with real numbers in the analysis of CD8 + T CMI, and to define various characteristics of the responding lymphocytes both by direct flow cytometric analysis and by sorting for further in vitro manipulation. Relatively little has yet been done from the latter aspect, though we are rapidly accumulating a mass of numerical data. The acute, antigen–driven phases of the fluA and γHV–specific response look rather similar, but CD8 + T–cell numbers are maintained in the long term at a higher ‘set point’ in the persistent infection. Similarly, these ‘memory’ T cells continue to divide at a much greater rate in the γHV–infected mice. New insights have also been generated on the nature of the recall response following secondary challenge in both experimental systems, and the extent of protection conferred by large numbers of virus–specific CD8 + T cells has been determined. However, there are still many parameters that have received little attention, partly because they are difficult to measure. These include the rate of antigen–specific CD8 + T–cell loss, the extent of the lymphocyte ‘diaspora’ to other tissues, and the diversity of functional characteristics, turnover rates, clonal life spans and recirculation profiles. The basic question for immunologists remains how we reconcile the extraordinary plasticity of the immune system with the mechanisms that maintain a stable milieu interieur. This new capacity to quantify CD8 + T–cell responses in readily manipulated mouse models has obvious potential for illuminating homeostatic control, particularly if the experimental approaches to the problem are designed in the context of appropriate predictive models.


2007 ◽  
Vol 81 (11) ◽  
pp. 5759-5765 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Northfield ◽  
Christopher P. Loo ◽  
Jason D. Barbour ◽  
Gerald Spotts ◽  
Frederick M. Hecht ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT CD8+ T cells are believed to play an important role in the control of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection. However, despite intensive efforts, it has not been possible to consistently link the overall magnitude of the CD8+ T-cell response with control of HIV-1. Here, we have investigated the association of different CD8+ memory T-cell subsets responding to HIV-1 in early infection with future control of HIV-1 viremia. Our results demonstrate that both a larger proportion and an absolute number of HIV-1-specific CD8+ CCR7− CD45RA+ effector memory T cells (TEMRA cells) were associated with a lower future viral load set point. In contrast, a larger absolute number of HIV-1-specific CD8+ CCR7− CD45RA− effector memory T cells (TEM) was not related to the viral load set point. Overall, the findings suggest that CD8+ TEMRA cells have superior antiviral activity and indicate that both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the CD8+ T-cell response need to be considered when defining the characteristics of protective immunity to HIV-1.


2013 ◽  
Vol 81 (11) ◽  
pp. 4171-4181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura A. Cooney ◽  
Megha Gupta ◽  
Sunil Thomas ◽  
Sebastian Mikolajczak ◽  
Kimberly Y. Choi ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTVaccination with a single dose of genetically attenuated malaria parasites can induce sterile protection against sporozoite challenge in the rodentPlasmodium yoeliimodel. Protection is dependent on CD8+T cells, involves perforin and gamma interferon (IFN-γ), and is correlated with the expansion of effector memory CD8+T cells in the liver. Here, we have further characterized vaccine-induced changes in the CD8+T cell phenotype and demonstrated significant upregulation of CD11c on CD3+CD8b+T cells in the liver, spleen, and peripheral blood. CD11c+CD8+T cells are predominantly CD11ahiCD44hiCD62L−, indicative of antigen-experienced effector cells. Followingin vitrorestimulation with malaria-infected hepatocytes, CD11c+CD8+T cells expressed inflammatory cytokines and cytotoxicity markers, including IFN-γ, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-2 (IL-2), perforin, and CD107a. CD11c−CD8+T cells, on the other hand, expressed negligible amounts of all inflammatory cytokines and cytotoxicity markers tested, indicating that CD11c marks multifunctional effector CD8+T cells. Coculture of CD11c+, but not CD11c−, CD8+T cells with sporozoite-infected primary hepatocytes significantly inhibited liver-stage parasite development. Tetramer staining for the immunodominant circumsporozoite protein (CSP)-specific CD8+T cell epitope demonstrated that approximately two-thirds of CSP-specific cells expressed CD11c at the peak of the CD11c+CD8+T cell response, but CD11c expression was lost as the CD8+T cells entered the memory phase. Further analyses showed that CD11c+CD8+T cells are primarily KLRG1+CD127−terminal effectors, whereas all KLRG1−CD127+memory precursor effector cells are CD11c−CD8+T cells. Together, these results suggest that CD11c marks a subset of highly inflammatory, short-lived, antigen-specific effector cells, which may play an important role in eliminating infected hepatocytes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. e000421
Author(s):  
Peng Peng ◽  
Hongming Hu ◽  
Ping Liu ◽  
Lisa X Xu

BackgroundTraditional tumor thermal ablations, such as radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and cryoablation, can result in good local control of tumor, but traditional tumor thermal ablations are limited by poor long-term survival due to the failure of control of distal metastasis. Our previous studies developed a novel cryo-thermal therapy to treat the B16F10 melanoma mouse model. Long-term survival and T-cell-mediated durable antitumor immunity were achieved after cryo-thermal therapy, but whether tumor antigen-specific T-cells were augmented by cryo-thermal therapy was not determined.MethodsThe long-term antitumor therapeutic efficacy of cryo-thermal therapy was performed in B16F10 murine melanoma models. Splenocytes derived from mice treated with RFA or cryo-thermal therapy were coincubated with tumor antigen peptides to detect the frequency of antigen specific CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells by flow cytometry. Splenocytes were then stimulated and expanded by αCD3 or peptides and adoptive T-cell therapy experiments were performed to identify the antitumor efficacy of T-cells induced by RFA and cryo-thermal therapy. Naïve mice and tumor-bearing mice were used as control groups.ResultsLocal cryo-thermal therapy generated a stronger systematic antitumor immune response than RFA and a long-lasting antitumor immunity that protected against tumor rechallenge. In vitro studies showed that the antigen-specific CD8+ T-cell response was induced by both cryo-thermal therapy and RFA, but the strong neoantigen-specific CD4+ T-cell response was only induced by cryo-thermal therapy. Cryo-thermal therapy-induced strong antitumor immune response was mainly mediated by CD4+ T-cells, particularly neoantigen-specific CD4+ T-cells.ConclusionCryo-thermal therapy induced a stronger and broader antigen-specific memory T-cells. Specifically, cryo-thermal therapy, but not RFA, led to a strong neoantigen-specific CD4+ T-cell response that mediated the resistance to tumor challenge.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. e001157
Author(s):  
Juliane Schuhmacher ◽  
Sonja Heidu ◽  
Torben Balchen ◽  
Jennifer Rebecca Richardson ◽  
Camilla Schmeltz ◽  
...  

BackgroundPeptide-based vaccination is a rational option for immunotherapy of prostate cancer. In this first-in-man phase I/II study, we assessed the safety, tolerability and immunological impact of a synthetic long peptide vaccine targeting Ras homolog gene family member C (RhoC) in patients with prostate cancer. RhoC is a small GTPase overexpressed in advanced solid cancers, metastases and cancer stem cells.MethodsTwenty-two patients who had previously undergone radical prostatectomy received subcutaneous injections of 0.1 mg of a single RhoC-derived 20mer peptide emulsified in Montanide ISA-51 every 2 weeks for the first six times, then five times every 4 weeks for a total treatment time of 30 weeks. The drug safety and vaccine-specific immune responses were assessed during treatment and thereafter within a 13-month follow-up period. Serum level of prostate-specific antigen was measured up to 26 months postvaccination.ResultsMost patients (18 of 21 evaluable) developed a strong CD4 T cell response against the vaccine, which lasted at least 10 months following the last vaccination. Three promiscuouslypresented HLA-class II epitopes were identified. Vaccine-specific CD4 T cells were polyfunctional and effector memory T cells that stably expressed PD-1 (CD279) and OX-40 (CD134), but not LAG-3 (CD223). One CD8 T cell response was detected in addition. The vaccine was well tolerated and no treatment-related adverse events of grade ≥3 were observed.ConclusionTargeting of RhoC induced a potent and long-lasting T cell immunity in the majority of the patients. The study demonstrates an excellent safety and tolerability profile. Vaccination against RhoC could potentially delay or prevent tumor recurrence and metastasis formation.Trial registration numberNCT03199872.


2011 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 717-723 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen L. Wozniak ◽  
Mattie L. Young ◽  
Floyd L. Wormley

ABSTRACTIndividuals with defects in T cell-mediated immunity (CMI) are highly susceptible to infection withCryptococcus neoformans. The purpose of these studies was to determine if protection against experimental pulmonary cryptococcosis can be generated in T cell-deficient hosts. BALB/c mice were depleted of CD4+and/or CD8+T cells or given an isotype control antibody prior to vaccination with aC. neoformansstrain, designated H99γ, previously shown to induce protection againstC. neoformansinfection in immunocompetent mice. Mice depleted of CD4+or CD8+T cells, but not both subsets, survived an acute pulmonary infection withC. neoformansstrain H99γ and a subsequent second challenge with wild-typeC. neoformansstrain H99. We observed a significant increase in the percentage of CD4+and CD8+T cells expressing the activation marker CD69 in the lungs of mice immunized withC. neoformansstrain H99γ prior to a secondary challenge with wild-type cryptococci. CD4+T cells within the lungs of immunized mice also appeared to acquire a predominantly activated effector memory cell phenotype (CD69+CD44+CCR7−CD45RB−CD62L−) following a second pulmonary challenge with wild-typeC. neoformans, compared to CD4+T cells from naïve mice. Lastly, immunization of immunocompetent mice withC. neoformansstrain H99γ prior to depletion of CD4+and/or CD8+T cells resulted in significant protection against a second challenge with wild-typeC. neoformans. Our studies demonstrate that protective immunity against pulmonary cryptococcosis can be generated in immunosuppressed hosts, thus supporting the development of cryptococcal vaccines.


Blood ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 115 (17) ◽  
pp. 3508-3519 ◽  
Author(s):  
John C. Markley ◽  
Michel Sadelain

Abstract The γc-cytokines are critical regulators of immunity and possess both overlapping and distinctive functions. However, comparative studies of their pleiotropic effects on human T cell–mediated tumor rejection are lacking. In a xenogeneic adoptive transfer model, we have compared the therapeutic potency of CD19-specific human primary T cells that constitutively express interleukin-2 (IL-2), IL-7, IL-15, or IL-21. We demonstrate that each cytokine enhanced the eradication of systemic CD19+ B-cell malignancies in nonobese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficient (NOD/SCID)/γcnull mice with markedly different efficacies and through singularly distinct mechanisms. IL-7– and IL-21–transduced T cells were most efficacious in vivo, although their effector functions were not as enhanced as IL-2– and IL-15–transduced T cells. IL-7 best sustained in vitro T-cell accumulation in response to repeated antigenic stimulation, but did not promote long-term T-cell persistence in vivo. Both IL-15 and IL-21 overexpression supported long-term T-cell persistence in treated mice, however, the memory T cells found 100 days after adoptive transfer were phenotypically dissimilar, resembling central memory and effector memory T cells, respectively. These results support the use of γc-cytokines in cancer immunotherapy, and establish that there exists more than 1 human T-cell memory phenotype associated with long-term tumor immunity.


Blood ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 109 (11) ◽  
pp. 4671-4678 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ji-Yuan Zhang ◽  
Zheng Zhang ◽  
Xicheng Wang ◽  
Jun-Liang Fu ◽  
Jinxia Yao ◽  
...  

Abstract The immunoreceptor PD-1 is significantly up-regulated on exhausted CD8+ T cells during chronic viral infections such as HIV-1. However, it remains unknown whether PD-1 expression on CD8+ T cells differs between typical progressors (TPs) and long-term nonprogressors (LTNPs). In this report, we examined PD-1 expression on HIV-specific CD8+ T cells from 63 adults with chronic HIV infection. We found that LTNPs exhibited functional HIV-specific memory CD8+ T cells with markedly lower PD-1 expression. TPs, in contrast, showed significantly up-regulated PD-1 expression that was closely correlated with a reduction in CD4 T-cell number and an elevation in plasma viral load. Importantly, PD-1 up-regulation was also associated with reduced perforin and IFN-γ production, as well as decreased HIV-specific effector memory CD8+ T-cell proliferation in TPs but not LTNPs. Blocking PD-1/PD-L1 interactions efficiently restored HIV-specific CD8+ T-cell effector function and proliferation. Taken together, these findings confirm the hypothesis that high PD-1 up-regulation mediates HIV-specific CD8+ T-cell exhaustion. Blocking the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway may represent a new therapeutic option for this disease and provide more insight into immune pathogenesis in LTNPs.


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