title: Sindbis virus vectors elicit hemagglutinin-specific humoral and cellular immune responses and offer a dose-sparing strategy for vaccination.
abstract: We report here on the use of a Sindbis virus-based DNA-launch RNA replicon vector (pSIN-HA) that expresses influenza hemagglutinin (HA) as an immunogen. Immunization of mice with pSIN-HA generated anti-HA antibody and CTL responses and resulted in lower lung viral titers after influenza challenge when compared to controls. Importantly, immunization with a low dose of pSIN-HA mediated significantly reduced lung viral titers following challenge at 43 weeks after the final immunization. In contrast, immunization with a non-replicon DNA vector expressing HA failed to mediate reduced lung viral titer at the same dose. This demonstrated the dose-sparing capacity of the SIN vector system and its ability to stimulate long-term memory responses, properties that are highly desirable in any vaccine formulation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne, Parkville 3010, Australia.
authors.forename: Annett
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Rob J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Center
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stambas
authors.forename: Georgia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Deliyannis
authors.forename: Peter C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Doherty
authors.forename: Jane L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Howard
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Turner
authors.forename: Damian F J
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Purcell