title: DNA electroporation prime and protein boost strategy enhances humoral immunity of tuberculosis DNA vaccines in mice and non-human primates.
abstract: DNA vaccines have shown to induce strong immune response in small animals; however, its capacity of inducing robust antigen-specific immune responses in large animals is limited. In the present study, in vivo electroporation (EP) was applied and the effect of EP on humoral immune response against tuberculosis (TB) induced by DNA vaccination was tested in mice and rhesus macaques. Mice injected with 10 microg DNA encoding Ag85A and ESAT-6 followed by EP showed a reproducible humoral immunity which was equal to that obtained by using 100 microg DNA without EP. Boosting the DNA/EP treated animals with corresponding recombinant protein (50 microg of either Ag85A or ESAT-6) without adding adjuvant gave more than a 7-8-fold increase in the antibody titre but only 3-4-fold increase was found in the mice receiving 100 microg DNA without EP followed by protein boost. In concordance with the results obtained in mice, the monkeys received less DNA achieved equal high antibody responses to those induced by high dosage of DNA. Boosting the the DNA/EP treated monkeys with TB protein (500 microg of either Ag85A or ESAT-6) improved the humoral response by 7-8-fold increase in antibody titre, indicating electroporation's ability to compensate lower DNA concentration and enhance humoral immunity of TB DNA vaccines in mice and non-human primates.
authors.affiliation: Vaccine Research Laboratory, Shanghai H&G Biotechnology Co. Inc., 395 Jiang Chang Road (W), Suite 3B, Shanghai 200436, PR China. zhongmingli1946@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Zhongming
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Hongyong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xiaoyong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jialu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Qingliang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Torunn Elisabeth
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Tjelle
authors.forename: Iacob
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mathiesen
authors.forename: Rune
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kjeken
authors.forename: Sidong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xiong
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D018274:Electroporation; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D051379:Mice; D011323:Primates; D019444:Vaccines, DNA / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D019444:Vaccines, DNA