title: Immunological memory after somatic transgene immunization is positively affected by priming with GM-CSF and does not require bone marrow-derived dendritic cells.
abstract: Inoculation of plasmid DNA is a promising vaccination approach but optimal regimes and ways to enhance immunogenicity remain to be established. Among natural immunological adjuvants, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) was shown to increase the potency of immunization against tumor cells and protein antigens. Here we studied the effect of GM-CSF on memory responses against a 12-mer B cell epitope in mice primed with a single DNA inoculation. The results show that GM-CSF given at priming as a DNA/GM-CSF chimeric vaccine enhances the magnitude of the anamnestic response irrespective of the form of antigen used subsequently in the booster immunization. Using mice lacking bone marrow-derived dendritic cells we also determined that the enhancing effect is not strictly dependent on these cells. These results expand our understanding of the activity of GM-CSF in vivo as a modulator of the immune response including immunological memory.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Cancer Center, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0063, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gerloni
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lo
authors.forename: W R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Ballou
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zanetti
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000852:Anopheles; D001854:Bone Marrow Cells / Q000276:immunology*; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000276:immunology*; D018985:Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D016178:Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D007156:Immunologic Memory; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000276:immunology; D019076:Transgenes; D014611:Vaccination; D019444:Vaccines, DNA / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D018985:Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte; D019444:Vaccines, DNA; D016178:Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor