Needle-free vaccine delivery.

As new disease threats arise and existing pathogens grow resistant to conventional interventions, attention increasingly focuses on the development of vaccines to induce protective immune responses. Given their admirable safety records, protein subunit vaccines are attractive for widespread immunization, but their disadvantages include poor immunogenicity and expensive manufacture. We show here that engineered Escherichia coli outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) are an easily purified vaccine-delivery system capable of greatly enhancing the immunogenicity of a low-immunogenicity protein antigen without added adjuvants. Using green-fluorescent protein (GFP) as the model subunit antigen, genetic fusion of GFP with the bacterial hemolysin ClyA resulted in a chimeric protein that elicited strong anti-GFP antibody titers in immunized mice, whereas immunization with GFP alone did not elicit such titers. Harnessing the specific secretion of ClyA to OMVs, the ClyA-GFP fusion was found localized in OMVs, resulting in engineered recombinant OMVs. The anti-GFP humoral response in mice immunized with the engineered OMV formulations was indistinguishable from the response to the purified ClyA-GFP fusion protein alone and equal to purified proteins absorbed to aluminum hydroxide, a standard adjuvant. In a major improvement over current practice, engineered OMVs containing ClyA-GFP were easily isolated by ultracentrifugation, effectively eliminating the need for laborious antigen purification from cell-culture expression systems. With the diverse collection of heterologous proteins that can be functionally localized with OMVs when fused with ClyA, this work signals the possibility of OMVs as a robust and tunable technology platform for a new generation of prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines.

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/107/7/3099.full.pdf

Delivery of foreign antigens by engineered outer membrane vesicle vaccines

Understanding the mechanisms underlying the induction of immunity in the gastrointestinal mucosa following oral immunization and the cross-talk between mucosal and systemic immunity should expedite the development of vaccines to diminish the global burden caused by enteric pathogens. Identifying an immunological correlate of protection in the course of field trials of efficacy, animal models (when available), or human challenge studies is also invaluable. In industrialized country populations, live attenuated vaccines (e.g. polio, typhoid, and rotavirus) mimic natural infection and generate robust protective immune responses. In contrast, a major challenge is to understand and overcome the barriers responsible for the diminished immunogenicity and efficacy of the same enteric vaccines in underprivileged populations in developing countries. Success in developing vaccines against some enteric pathogens has heretofore been elusive (e.g. Shigella). Different types of oral vaccines can selectively or inclusively elicit mucosal secretory immunoglobulin A and serum immunoglobulin G antibodies and a variety of cell-mediated immune responses. Areas of research that require acceleration include interaction between the gut innate immune system and the stimulation of adaptive immunity, development of safe yet effective mucosal adjuvants, better understanding of homing to the mucosa of immunologically relevant cells, and elicitation of mucosal immunologic memory. This review dissects the immune responses elicited in humans by enteric vaccines.

/pdf/immunology-of-gut-mucosal-vaccines-3rmto6ica9.pdf

Immunology of gut mucosal vaccines

Engineered Bacterial Outer Membrane Vesicles with Enhanced Functionality

Determining the chemical composition of biological materials is paramount to the study of natural phenomena. Here, we describe the composition of model gram-negative outer membranes, focusing on the predominant assembly, an asymmetrical bilayer of lipid molecules. We also give an overview of lipid biosynthetic pathways and molecular mechanisms that organize this material into the outer membrane bilayer. An emphasis is placed on the potential of these pathways as targets for antibiotic development. We discuss deviations in composition, through bacterial cell surface remodeling, and alternative modalities to the asymmetric lipid bilayer. Outer membrane lipid alterations of current microbiological interest, such as lipid structures found in commensal bacteria, are emphasized. Additionally, outer membrane components could potentially be engineered to develop vaccine platforms. Observations related to composition and assembly of gram-negative outer membranes will continue to generate novel discoveries, broaden biotechnologies, and reveal profound mysteries to compel future research.

The Power of Asymmetry: Architecture and Assembly of the Gram-Negative Outer Membrane Lipid Bilayer

Bacterial live-vector vaccines aim to deliver foreign antigens to the immune system and induce protective immune responses, and surface-expressed or secreted antigens are generally more immunogenic than cytoplasmic constructs. We hypothesize that an optimum expression system will use an endogenous export system to avoid the need for large amounts of heterologous DNA encoding additional proteins. Here we describe the cryptic chromosomally encoded 34-kDa cytolysin A hemolysin of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (ClyA) as a novel export system for the expression of heterologous antigens in the supernatant of attenuated Salmonella serovar Typhi live-vector vaccine strains. We constructed a genetic fusion of ClyA to the reporter green fluorescent protein and showed that in Salmonella serovar Typhi CVD 908-htrA, the fusion protein retains biological activity in both domains and is exported into the supernatant of an exponentially growing live vector in the absence of detectable bacterial lysis. The utility of ClyA for enhancing the immunogenicity of an otherwise problematic antigen was demonstrated by engineering ClyA fused to the domain 4 (D4) moiety of Bacillus anthracis protective antigen (PA). A total of 11 of 15 mice immunized intranasally with Salmonella serovar Typhi exporting the protein fusion manifested fourfold or greater rises in serum anti-PA immunoglobulin G, compared with only 1 of 16 mice immunized with the live vector expressing cytoplasmic D4 (P = 0.0002). In addition, the induction of PA-specific gamma interferon and interleukin 5 responses was observed in splenocytes. This technology offers exceptional versatility for enhancing the immunogenicity of bacterial live-vector vaccines.

Adaptation of the endogenous Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi clyA-encoded hemolysin for antigen export enhances the immunogenicity of anthrax protective antigen domain 4 expressed by the attenuated live-vector vaccine strain CVD 908-htrA.

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi vaccine strain CVD 908-htrA was genetically engineered for stable plasmid-based expression of protective antigen of anthrax toxin (PA83) fused with the export protein ClyA (ClyA-PA83). The priming potential of CVD 908-htrA expressing ClyA-PA83 was assessed in 12 rhesus and 20 cynomolgus macaques that were immunized mucosally (i.e., intranasally) on days 0 and 14. A parenteral booster with purified PA83 plus alum was given to rhesus macaques on days 42 and 225; cynomolgus monkeys received a booster with either PA or licensed anthrax vaccine (BioThrax; Emergent Biosolutions) only one time, 3 months after priming. Monkeys primed with S. Typhi expressing ClyA-PA83 developed high levels of serum toxin-neutralization activity (TNA) antibodies (50% effective dose [ED50], >1.3x10(3)), 7 days after receipt of the booster, whereas unprimed controls lacked serum TNA (ED50, 0). In nonhuman primates, the success of this anthrax vaccine strategy based on heterologous mucosal priming followed by a parenteral subunit vaccine booster paves the way for clinical trials.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/info/40254423

Mucosal Immunization with Attenuated Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhi Expressing Protective Antigen of Anthrax Toxin (PA83) Primes Monkeys for Accelerated Serum Antibody Responses to Parenteral PA83 Vaccine

James E. Galen

Papers

Adaptation of the endogenous Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi clyA-encoded hemolysin for antigen export enhances the immunogenicity of anthrax protective antigen domain 4 expressed by the attenuated live-vector vaccine strain CVD 908-htrA.

Mucosal Immunization with Attenuated Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhi Expressing Protective Antigen of Anthrax Toxin (PA83) Primes Monkeys for Accelerated Serum Antibody Responses to Parenteral PA83 Vaccine

Chimeric Vaccines Against Japanese Encephalitis, Dengue, and West Nile