title: Enhancement of cell-mediated immune response in mice by whole HIV-1 gag in Mycobacterium bovis BCG as a live vaccine candidate.
abstract: In this study, we employed a recombinant Mycobacterium bovis Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) harboring whole HIV-1 CRF01_AE gag DNA as a candidate vaccine to investigate specific cell-mediated immunity in BALB/c mice. Construction of the stable expression recombinant BCG was achieved by demonstrating by Western blot detection of protein of approximately 55 kDa. By a single injection of 0.1 mg of the recombinant HIV-1 gag protein expressing BCG subcutaneously into mice, after 2 weeks various specific cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) responses were exhibited against a single gag epitope of amino acid positions 294-304, and also against various peptide regions along the entire gag protein with moderate CTL activities (10-35% specific cell lysis), which increased to relatively high levels (50-68%) after one month. However, after two months activities were 3-3.7 fold lower. On the other hand, gag-specific lymphocyte proliferation was detected 9.3 fold higher than that of non-immunized mouse spleen cells. Our results indicate that in mice, BCG can be used as a recombinant live vector to induce cellular immune responses to HIV-1 gag antigen.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Sciences, Ministry of Public Health, Nonthaburi, Thailand. dthanorm@dmsc.moph.go.th
authors.forename: Duanthanorm
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Promkhatkaew
authors.forename: Nadthanan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pinyosukhee
authors.forename: Wilai
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Thongdeejaroen
authors.forename: Reungpung
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sutthent
authors.forename: Pathom
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sawanpanyalert
authors.forename: Paijit
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Warachit