Research Article
Immunogenicity and Protective Efficiency in Mice of a Smallpox DNA Vaccine Candidate
Na Young Kim1, Dong Suk Chang1, Gyeung Haeng Hur2, Taek Yeol Lee1, Jai Myung Yang1 and Sungho Shin1*1Department of Life Science, Sogang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
2Agency for Defense Development, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
- *Corresponding Author:
- Sungho Shin
Department of Life Science
Seoul National University
Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea
Tel: + 82 2 6006 7649
E-mail: sungshin@snu.ac.kr
Received Date: May 08, 2017; Accepted Date: May 30, 2017; Published Date: June 07, 2017
Citation: Kim NY, Chang DS, Hur GH, Lee TY, Yang JM, et al. (2017) Immunogenicity and Protective Efficiency in Mice of a Smallpox DNA Vaccine Candidate. J Bioterror Biodef 8: 155. doi:10.4172/2157-2526.1000155
Copyright: © 2017 Kim NY, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
The adverse reactions of the current live smallpox vaccine, and potential use of smallpox as a bioterrorism weapon, have highlighted the need to develop a new effective vaccine for this infectious disease. In the present study, a DNA vaccine vector was produced, which was optimized for expression of the vaccinia virus L1 antigen in a mouse model. Plasmid-encoded IgM-tL1R, which contains a truncated L1R gene fused to an IgM signal sequence, was constructed and expressed under the regulation of an SV40 enhancer. The expressed recombinant tL1 proteins were successfully secreted into the culture media. The DNA vaccine was administered to mice by electroporation, and animals were subsequently challenged with the lethal dose of vaccinia virus. We observed that immunization with IgM-tL1R induced robust neutralizing antibody responses and provided complete protection against a vaccinia virus infection. Isotyping studies revealed a lower IgG1/IgG2a ratio following vaccination with IgM-tL1R, suggesting the stimulation of Th1 immune responses. Our results propose that an optimized DNA vaccine, IgM-tL1R, can be effective in eliciting an anti-vaccinia virus immune response and provide protection against lethal orthopoxvirus challenge.
