Recent advances in antibody-inducing poxviral and adenoviral vectored vaccine delivery platforms for difficult disease targets

Abstract

Viral vectored vaccine delivery platforms have traditionally been used for the induction of cellular rather than humoral immunity. However, in recent years, recombinant adenoviral and poxviral vectored vaccines have been optimized to induce B-cell responses, resulting in the demonstration of high-titer antibody responses in a wide variety of animal species. These approaches have now been translated, confirming the induction of substantial levels of antigen-specific IgG in a series of Phase I human clinical trials targeting HIV-1 and Plasmodium falciparum malaria. To further improve the induction of antibodies, mixed-modality regimens based on recombinant viral and protein/adjuvant vaccines are now being assessed. However, limited data exist about the underlying mechanisms mediating the induction of B-cell responses by these subunit vaccines and their ability to influence the qualitative aspects of vaccine-induced B-cell populations and immunoglobulin. Future studies in this area are needed to guide the rational design of antibody-inducing subunit vaccine strategies.

Keywords::

• adenovirus
• adjuvant
• antibody
• B cell
• DNA vaccine
• poxvirus
• prime–boost
• protein vaccine
• T cell
• viral vector vaccine

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Adrian Hill for useful discussions and comments on the manuscript.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

SC de Cassan and SJ Draper are named inventors on patent applications covering malaria-vectored vaccines and immunization regimens. SC de Cassan was a PhD student supported by the European Malaria Vaccine Development Association, a European Commission Framework Program 6-funded consortium (Grant LSHP-CT-2007-037506). SJ Draper is a Jenner Investigator and a UK Medical Research Council Career Development Fellow (Grant G1000527). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.