Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Background
The current live vaccinia virus vaccine used in the prevention of smallpox is contraindicated for millions of immune-compromised individuals. Although vaccination with the current smallpox vaccine produces protective immunity, it might result in mild to serious health complications for some vaccinees. Thus, there is a critical need for the production of a safe virus-free vaccine against smallpox that is available to everyone. For that reason, we investigated the impact of imiquimod and resiquimod (Toll-like receptors agonists), and the codon-usage optimization of the vaccinia virus A27L gene in the enhancement of the immune response, with intent of producing a safe, virus-free DNA vaccine coding for the A27 vaccinia virus protein.Methods
We analyzed the cellular-immune response by measuring the IFN-? production of splenocytes by ELISPOT, the humoral-immune responses measuring total IgG and IgG2a/IgG1 ratios by ELISA, and the TH1 and TH2 cytokine profiles by ELISA, in mice immunized with our vaccine formulation.Results
The proposed vaccine formulation enhanced the A27L vaccine-mediated production of IFN-? on mouse spleens, and increased the humoral immunity with a TH1-biased response. Also, our vaccine induced a TH1 cytokine milieu, which is important against viral infections.Conclusion
These results support the efforts to find a new mechanism to enhance an immune response against smallpox, through the implementation of a safe, virus-free DNA vaccination platform.
SUBMITTER: Martinez O
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4395221 | biostudies-literature | 2015
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Martínez Osmarie O Miranda Eric E Ramírez Maite M Santos Saritza S Rivera Carlos C Vázquez Luis L Sánchez Tomás T Tremblay Raymond L RL Ríos-Olivares Eddy E Otero Miguel M
PloS one 20150413 4
<h4>Background</h4>The current live vaccinia virus vaccine used in the prevention of smallpox is contraindicated for millions of immune-compromised individuals. Although vaccination with the current smallpox vaccine produces protective immunity, it might result in mild to serious health complications for some vaccinees. Thus, there is a critical need for the production of a safe virus-free vaccine against smallpox that is available to everyone. For that reason, we investigated the impact of imiq ...[more]