title: Comparison on virulence and immunogenicity of two recombinant vaccinia vaccines, Tian Tan and Guang9 strains, expressing the HIV-1 envelope gene.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The vaccinia virus Guang9 strain (VG9), derived from the vaccinia virus Tian Tan strain (VTT) has been found to be less virulent than VTT.
  
  
  RESULTS
  To investigate whether VG9 could be a potential replicating virus vector, the TK genes in VG9 and VTT were replaced with the HIV-1 envelope gene via homologous recombination, resulting in the recombinant viruses, VG9-E and VTT-E. The biology, virulence, humoral and cellular immunological responses of VG9-E and VTT-E were evaluated. Our results indicated no obvious difference in range of host cells and diffusion between two recombinant viruses. Neurovirulence for VG9-E in weanling and suckling mice, and skin virulence in rabbits, were lower than that of VTT-E. The humoral immune responses, including binding antibody and neutralizing antibody responses, induced by VG9-E were not significantly different from those for VTT-E whilst IFN-γ response which represented cellular immune response induced by VG9-E was significantly higher than that did by VTT-E.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results indicated that VG9-E was less virulent, yet induced higher cellular immune response than VTT-E. Therefore, it could be an ideal replicating vaccinia vector for HIV vaccine research and development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Health for Research on Quality and Standardization of Biotech Products, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Weijin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Wenbo
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Jianhui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nie
authors.forename: Shufang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.forename: Yongxin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Youchun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D057134:Antibodies, Neutralizing / Q000276:immunology; D002460:Cell Line; D058501:Enzyme-Linked Immunospot Assay; D005260:Female; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D007109:Immunity / Q000276:immunology; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000276:immunology; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000276:immunology; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D011817:Rabbits; D012867:Skin / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D013154:Spleen / Q000276:immunology; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic / Q000276:immunology*; D014616:Vaccinia virus / Q000276:immunology* / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D014765:Viral Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*; D014774:Virulence / Q000276:immunology*; D054299:env Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D057134:Antibodies, Neutralizing; D007376:Interleukin-2; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic; D014765:Viral Vaccines; D054299:env Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus; D007371:Interferon-gamma