title: HelicoVax: epitope-based therapeutic Helicobacter pylori vaccination in a mouse model.
abstract: Helicobacter pylori is the leading cause of gastritis, peptic ulcer disease and gastric adenocarcinoma and lymphoma in humans. Due to the decreasing efficacy of anti-H. pylori antibiotic therapy in clinical practice, there is renewed interest in the development of anti-H. pylori vaccines. In this study an in silico-based approach was utilized to develop a multi-epitope DNA-prime/peptide-boost immunization strategy using informatics tools. The efficacy of this construct was then assessed as a therapeutic vaccine in a mouse model of gastric cancer induced by chronic H. pylori infection. The multi-epitope vaccine administered intranasally induced a broad immune response as determined by interferon-gamma production in ELISpot assays. This was associated with a significant reduction in H. pylori colonization compared with mice immunized with the same vaccine intramuscularly, given an empty plasmid, or given a whole H. pylori lysate intranasally as the immunogen. Total scores of gastric histological changes were not significantly different among the 4 experimental groups. These results suggest that further development of an epitope-based mucosal vaccine may be beneficial in eradicating H. pylori and reducing the burden of the associated gastric diseases in humans.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Rhode Island Hospital & Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI 02903, USA. Steven Moss@Brown.edu
authors.forename: Steven F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Moss
authors.forename: Leonard
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Moise
authors.forename: Dong Soo
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Woojin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Songhua
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jinhee
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Arlin B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Rogers
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Anne S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: De Groot
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001428:Bacterial Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D058501:Enzyme-Linked Immunospot Assay; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy*; D016480:Helicobacter pylori / Q000276:immunology; D007111:Immunity, Cellular; D007117:Immunization, Secondary; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D013270:Stomach / Q000473:pathology; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000628:therapy*; D019444:Vaccines, DNA / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D001428:Bacterial Vaccines; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte; D019444:Vaccines, DNA; D007371:Interferon-gamma