title: Humoral immune response and protection from viral infection in mice vaccinated with inactivated MHV-68: effects of type I interferon.
abstract: Infection of mice by murine gammaherpesvirus 68 (MHV-68) represents a suitable animal model in which to investigate the immune response against gammaherpesviruses and to test the efficacy of vaccination strategies. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of heat-inactivated MHV-68 as a vaccine as well as the adjuvant activity of type I interferon (IFN-I) administered together with the vaccine. Mice vaccinated with inactivated MHV-68 and subsequently infected with the virus exhibited a significant augmentation of the virus-specific humoral immune response and a considerable inhibition of MHV-68 acute replication in the lungs compared with unvaccinated control mice. The coadministration of IFN-I with inactivated MHV-68 significantly enhanced the humoral immune response elicited by the vaccine by stimulating the production of virus-specific IgG2 antibodies but did not significantly enhance protection from viral challenge. We conclude that IFN-I, recently shown to exhibit a powerful adjuvant activity to a poorly immunogenic subunit vaccine in mice, can also enhance the humoral immune response when used as adjuvant of an inactivated viral vaccine, even though this effect is less marked as a result of the strong immune response elicited by the inactivated virus alone, which may also involve the contribution of endogenous IFN.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Virology, Instituto Superiore di Sanità, 00161 Rome, Italy. e-arico@libero.it
authors.forename: Eleonora
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Aricò
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Robertson
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ferrantini
authors.forename: Filippo
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Belardelli
authors.forename: Anthony A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Nash
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D000917:Antibody Formation; D002460:Cell Line; D018142:Gammaherpesvirinae / Q000276:immunology*; D006566:Herpesviridae Infections / Q000276:immunology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000097:blood; D007370:Interferon Type I / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D015164:Vaccines, Inactivated / Q000494:pharmacology*; D014765:Viral Vaccines / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D007075:Immunoglobulin M; D007370:Interferon Type I; D015164:Vaccines, Inactivated; D014765:Viral Vaccines