Project description:Despite the success of currently authorized vaccines for the reduction of severe COVID-19 disease risk, rapidly emerging viral variants continue to drive pandemic waves of infection, resulting in numerous global public health challenges. Progress will depend on future advances in prophylactic vaccine activity, including advancement of candidates capable of generating more potent induction of cross-reactive T cells and durable cross-reactive antibody responses. Here we evaluated an Amphiphile (AMP) adjuvant, AMP-CpG, admixed with SARS-CoV-2 Spike receptor binding domain (RBD) immunogen, as a lymph node-targeted protein subunit vaccine (ELI-005) in mice and non-human primates (NHPs). AMP-mediated targeting of CpG DNA to draining lymph nodes resulted in comprehensive local immune activation characterized by extensive transcriptional reprogramming, inflammatory proteomic milieu, and activation of innate immune cells as key orchestrators of antigen-directed adaptive immunity. Prime-boost immunization with AMP-CpG in mice induced potent and durable T cell responses in multiple anatomical sites critical for prophylactic efficacy and prevention of severe disease. Long-lived memory responses were rapidly expanded upon re-exposure to antigen. In parallel, RBD-specific antibodies were long-lived, and exhibited cross-reactive recognition of variant RBD. AMP-CpG-adjuvanted prime-boost immunization in NHPs was safe and well tolerated, while promoting multi-cytokine-producing circulating T cell responses cross-reactive across variants of concern (VOC). Expansion of RBD-specific germinal center (GC) B cells in lymph nodes correlated to rapid seroconversion with variant-specific neutralizing antibody responses exceeding those measured in convalescent human plasma. These results demonstrate the promise of lymph-node adjuvant-targeting to coordinate innate immunity and generate robust adaptive responses critical for vaccine efficacy.
Project description:Despite the success of currently authorized vaccines for the reduction of severe COVID-19 disease risk, rapidly emerging viral variants continue to drive pandemic waves of infection, resulting in numerous global public health challenges. Progress will depend on future advances in prophylactic vaccine activity, including advancement of candidates capable of generating more potent induction of cross-reactive T cells and durable cross-reactive antibody responses. Here we evaluated an Amphiphile (AMP) adjuvant, AMP-CpG, admixed with SARS-CoV-2 Spike receptor binding domain (RBD) immunogen, as a lymph node-targeted protein subunit vaccine (ELI-005) in mice and non-human primates (NHPs). AMP-mediated targeting of CpG DNA to draining lymph nodes resulted in comprehensive local immune activation characterized by extensive transcriptional reprogramming, inflammatory proteomic milieu, and activation of innate immune cells as key orchestrators of antigen-directed adaptive immunity. Prime-boost immunization with AMP-CpG in mice induced potent and durable T cell responses in multiple anatomical sites critical for prophylactic efficacy and prevention of severe disease. Long-lived memory responses were rapidly expanded upon re-exposure to antigen. In parallel, RBD-specific antibodies were long-lived, and exhibited cross-reactive recognition of variant RBD. AMP-CpG-adjuvanted prime-boost immunization in NHPs was safe and well tolerated, while promoting multi-cytokine-producing circulating T cell responses cross-reactive across variants of concern (VOC). Expansion of RBD-specific germinal center (GC) B cells in lymph nodes correlated to rapid seroconversion with variant-specific neutralizing antibody responses exceeding those measured in convalescent human plasma. These results demonstrate the promise of lymph-node adjuvant-targeting to coordinate innate immunity and generate robust adaptive responses critical for vaccine efficacy.
Project description:Sixteen individual rhesus macaque genomes were compared to a reference macaque genome (R354) on custom-designed sure-print 1M oligonucleotide microarray Agilent (Agilent Technologies) aCGH slide per manufacturer’s recommendations. a custom designed Agilent array-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) platform, which comprises 950,843 unique 60-mer oligonucleotide probes specific to the rhesus macaque reference genome (rheMac2), to compare the genomic DNAs of 17 unrelated rhesus macaques of Indian origin to the genome of an unrelated sample from the same species.
Project description:The primary goal of this study was to compare the performances of Rhesus Macaque Genome Array and Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array with respect to the detection of differential expressions when rhesus macaque RNA extracts were labeled and hybridized. The secondary goal of this study was to investigate the effect of mismatch position on signal strength in Affymetrix GeneChips by examining naturally occurring mismatches between rhesus macaque transcripts and human probes from Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array. The primary goal of this study was to compare the performances of Rhesus Macaque Genome Array and Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array with respect to the detection of differential expressions when rhesus macaque RNA extracts were labeled and hybridized. The secondary goal of this study was to investigate the effect of mismatch position on signal strength in Affymetrix GeneChips by examining naturally occurring mismatches between rhesus macaque transcripts and human probes from Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array. Keywords: cross hybridization