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Section of Retroviral Immunology, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, Bethesda, MD 20892; and
Malaria Program, Naval Medical Research Institute, Bethesda, MD 20889
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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Many DNA vaccines induce strong protective immune responses in adult animals (1, 2, 3, 8, 9). For example, the plasmid encoding the circumsporozoite protein of the Plasmodium yoelii malaria parasite (pCSP)3 stimulates a protective immune response in adult BALB/c mice (3); this response is characterized by the production of Th1-type cytokines, IgG anti-CSP Abs, and CTLs (3, 10). A similar vaccine (directed against the CSP of P. falciparum) was reported recently to stimulate a strong CTL response in adult human volunteers (11). However, most vaccines intended for human use are administered to infants and children. Due to the immaturity of their immune system, newborns exposed to foreign Ags are at risk of developing tolerance rather than immunity (12). A number of factors influence the development of neonatal tolerance, including the nature, concentration, and mode of Ag presentation to the immune system, and the age of the host (13, 14, 15). Because the protein encoded by a DNA vaccine is produced endogenously and expressed in the context of self MHC, the potential exits for the neonatal immune system to recognize it as "self", resulting in tolerance rather than immunity.
Consistent with such a possibility, we showed that pCSP induced tolerance rather than immunity when administered to newborn BALB/c mice (16). Not all DNA vaccines are tolerogenic: several investigators have elicited immunity by administering DNA vaccines to newborn mice and non-human primates (15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22). However, we reproducibly observed that neonatal animals treated with pCSP were unable to generate T or B cell responses when challenged with pCSP as adults (16). The current work examines the influence of Ag dose, recipient age, and MHC haplotype on the development of tolerance, as well as the role of T cells in this process.
| Materials and Methods |
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The pCSP DNA vaccine (a kind gift of Vical, Inc., San Diego, CA; manufacturers designation VR2507) was constructed by cloning the DraI-EcoRV fragment of the PyCSP gene into the HincII site of pBluescript II SK+ (Stratagene, La Jolla, CA) and then transferring it into the SalI/Klenow-filled and BamHI sites of a kCMVinBL vector (a modified pUC18-based plasmid pCMVintBl) (7), where the ampicillin-resistance gene was replaced with a kanamycin resistance gene using the pBluescript XhoI/Klenow-filled and BamHI restriction endonuclease sites located 5' and 3', respectively, to the PyCSP coding sequence, as described previously (3). Expression of PyCSP was tested by in vitro transfection of BHK cells and by immunoblot analysis of cell lysates.
Plasmid DNA was purified using an EndoFree plasmid maxi kit (Qiagen, Valencia, CA) according to the manufacturers protocol. Briefly, lysates from bacteria transformed with VR2507 were passed over a Qiagen column and then sterilized by ethanol precipitation. These lysates were shown to be endotoxin-free before being dissolved in sterile PBS for injection.
CS.1 is an immunoaffinity-purified fusion protein that is produced in
Escherichia coli and consists of amino acids (aa)
64321 of the intact PyCSP protein fused to 81 aa of the nonstructural
protein of influenza A (3, 23). A synthetic peptide corresponding to
PyCSP 280295 aa, SYVPSEQILEFVKQI (designated P16), was used to
induce IFN-
production from pCSP-immunized T cells in vitro (16, 24).
Animals
Female BALB/c, C57BL/6, C3H/HeJ, and A/J mice were obtained from The Jackson Laboratory (Bar Harbor, ME) and maintained in the specific pathogen animal colony at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. Mice were immunized between 1 day and 7 wk of age and boosted from 6 wk to 1 yr of age. Adults were immunized in the quadriceps muscle with 40 µg of plasmid DNA, whereas mice <1 wk of age were injected with 1100 µg of pCSP in the gluteus maximus. A total of 50 µg of CS.1 protein emulsified in CFA was injected i.p. into adult mice, whereas 20 µg of soluble CS.1 was injected i.p. into newborns (25).
At 36 wk postimmunization, animals were bled by retroorbital puncture and killed by cervical dislocation; their spleens were removed aseptically. Serum was stored at -70°C and assayed for Ab by ELISA, whereas freshly isolated cells were examined for cytokine production.
CSP-specific Ab assay
We coated 96-well Immulon 1 microtiter plates (Dynatech, Alexandria, VA) with 10 µg/ml of immunoaffinity-purified CS.1 protein in 0.1 M carbonate buffer, pH 9.5 (10). Plates were blocked with PBS/1% BSA, overlaid with serially diluted mouse serum, washed, and reacted with phosphatase-conjugated anti-mouse IgG (Southern Biotechnology Associates, Birmingham, AL). The concentration of specific Ab was determined by comparison with a standard curve that had been generated using a high-titered anti-serum.
IFN-
-specific ELISA assay
Spleen cell suspensions (2.5 x 105 cells/ml) were prepared in complete medium (RPMI 1640 supplemented with 10% heat-inactivated FCS, 1.5 mM L-glutamine, and 100 U/ml of penicillin/streptomycin). A total of 100 µl of the cell suspensions from naive, immunized, or tolerized mice (in some cases depleted of CD4+ or CD8+ T cells) was mixed and stimulated for 3 days in U-bottom microtiter plates with 10 µg/ml P16 peptide in a 5% CO2 in air, 37°C incubator. The culture supernatants from these wells were collected and stored at -70° until assayed, as described previously (26).
We coated 96-well Immulon 2 microtiter plates with 10 µg/ml of
anti-IFN-
(clone RMMG-1, Biosource International, Camarillo, CA)
in PBS for 5 h at room temperature (27). The plates were
blocked with PBS/5% BSA for 1 h and washed with PBS/0.025% Tween
20. Culture supernatants diluted in PBS/1% BSA were added to the
anti-IFN-
-coated plates for 2 h, washed with PBS-Tween, and
overlaid with 1 µg/ml of biotinylated anti-IFN-
(clone R4-6A2,
PharMingen, San Diego, CA) followed by a 1/5000 dilution of
streptavidin-alkaline phosphatase (PharMingen) for 2 h at room
temperature. After a final wash, the concentration of IFN-
was
determined colorimetrically by comparison with a standard curve that
had been generated using known concentrations of cytokine.
Cell purification
Spleen cells (106/ml) were incubated with biotinylated anti-CD4 or anti-CD8 Abs (Becton Dickinson, San Jose, CA) for 15 min at 4°C. Cells were washed and reacted with avidin-conjugated magnetic cell sorting (MACS) microbeads (Miltenyi Biotec, Sunnyvale, CA) for 15 min at 4°C. Phenotype-positive cells were then deleted using the MACS magnetic purification system (Miltenyi Biotec) (28). The remaining cells were <0.4% phenotype-positive as determined by staining sorted populations with fluorescein-labeled phenotype-specific mAbs (PharMingen).
Adoptive transfer
A single-cell suspension was prepared from the spleens of three to five 10-wk-old naive or pCSP-tolerized donors. Next, 5 x 107 cells were injected i.v. into 6-wk-old syngeneic recipients. After 4 days, recipients were immunized i.m. with 40 µg of pCSP; their Ab response was monitored 3 wk later.
Sporozoite challenge
At 3 wk after the final pCSP treatment, mice were challenged by
an i.v. injection of 100 sporozoites from the nonlethal 17
x NL strain of P. yoelii (>10 ID50).
These sporozoites were raised in Anopheles stephensi
mosquitoes and were obtained by salivary gland dissection. To document
malaria infection, Giemsa-stained blood films were examined on days 6,
10, and 14 postchallenge. The presence of
1/1000 infected RBCs at any
time was taken as evidence of active infection.
Data analysis
All results represent the average of more than four individually tested mice per group. Statistical significance was established using the Student t test.
| Results |
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The pCSP DNA vaccine is composed of the gene encoding the
circumsporozoite protein (CSP) of P. yoelii malaria inserted
into the 1020 plasmid vector (3, 7). Our lab showed previously that
i.m. injections of pCSP into adult BALB/c mice induced a strong,
protective, immune response characterized by the production of IgG
anti-CSP Abs and the induction of Ag-specific CTLs (10). In
contrast, the same plasmid induced a profound state of immune tolerance
when administered to 1- to 2-day-old mice (Table I
and
16). Tolerance was characterized by the lack of a cellular or
humoral immune response to treatment with pCSP at 67 wk of age.
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The duration of tolerance was examined by repeatedly rechallenging
neonatally tolerized animals with pCSP at 610 wk intervals. These
studies used only those mice found to be tolerant when challenged with
pCSP at 6 wk of age. As seen in Table II
, these mice
remained tolerant for the duration of the experiment (>1 yr). To
determine whether repeated exposure to pCSP contributed to this
persistence of tolerance, neonatally tolerized mice were "rested"
for 612 mo and then reexposed to pCSP. All animals remained tolerant
for 6 mo, and most mice remained tolerant for one full year in the
absence of pCSP reexposure (Table II
). The site of pCSP injection was
examined by PCR and RT-PCR for the persistence of plasmid or CSP mRNA.
Neither could be detected longer than 3 mo after pCSP administration
(data not shown). Of interest, the magnitude of the serum IgG
anti-CSP response of mice that broke tolerance after 1 yr resembled
that of a conventional primary (rather than memory) immune response.
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Naive BALB/c mice are susceptible to infection by P.
yoelii sporozoites, whereas adult BALB/c mice repeatedly
vaccinated with pCSP are generally protected (Fig. 2
and
16). We revaccinated normal and neonatally tolerized mice with
pCSP and then challenged them with 100 live sporozoites (>10
ID50). As seen in Fig. 2
, repeated vaccination protected
normal adult mice but not tolerized mice from malaria. These results
suggest that the tolerance induced by neonatal DNA vaccination could
potentially prevent the host from developing a protective
pathogen-specific immune response.
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To gain insight into the cellular basis of this tolerant state,
5 x 107 spleen cells from naive or neonatally
tolerized mice were adoptively transferred into normal syngeneic
recipients. Recipients were immunized 4 days later with 40 µg of
pCSP. As seen in Table III
, spleen cells from
tolerized donors inhibited the development of a primary IgG
anti-CSP response in recipient mice. In contrast, a normal immune
response developed in the recipients of bone marrow cells from
tolerized donors or of spleen cells from naive donors. To examine the
phenotype of the cells responsible for this suppression, splenocytes
from tolerized mice were depleted of CD4+ or CD8
T+ cells before transfer. Recipients of CD8- but not
CD4-depleted splenocytes responded normally to pCSP immunization,
suggesting that CD8+ T cells were required for tolerance
induction (Table IV
).
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when stimulated with P16,
a synthetic peptide containing the immunodominant T cell epitope of the
CSP protein (24, 29). When spleen cells from immunized mice were mixed
with an equal number of splenocytes from syngeneic donors, this
P16-dependent IFN-
production persisted. However, spleen cells from
neonatally tolerized mice blocked this in vitro IFN-
response.
Consistent with results from in vivo experiments, an inhibition of
IFN-
production was observed when spleen cells from tolerized donors
were depleted of CD4+ T cells, but was ablated by the
removal of CD8+ T cells.
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| Discussion |
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-mediated protective
CTLs and strong humoral immune responses (1, 8). Because many human
vaccines are designed for use in children and newborns, the ability of
DNA vaccines to function in young animals is of considerable interest.
Although several groups (including our own) have found that many DNA
vaccines (including those encoding non-CSP proteins from malaria,
viral, and tumor Ags) can induce immunity in newborn animals (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 30), the pCSP DNA vaccine (encoding the circumsporozoite protein
of P. yoelii malaria) induces neonatal tolerance (16). The
current work examines the parameters that contribute to the development
of tolerance and provides evidence that CD8+ T cells are
involved in this process.
Whereas adult BALB/c mice repeatedly vaccinated with pCSP mount strong
protective Ab and CTL responses when challenged with live sporozoites
(Fig. 2
and 3), the administration of this vaccine to
newborn mice frequently results in neonatal tolerance. Tolerized BALB/c
mice are unable to generate Ab, cytokine, or cytotoxic T cell responses
against pCSP-encoded Ags (16). We find that this induction of tolerance
is critically dependent upon the timing of vaccine administration.
Although 2-day-old mice were extremely susceptible to tolerance
induction, pCSP was never tolerogenic when administered to mice that
were >7 days of age.
Among 1- to 2-day-old mice, increasing the dose of pCSP increased the
likelihood of tolerance developing, with 100% of mice being tolerized
by 100 µg of pCSP. Presumably, an early expression of pCSP-encoded
Ags presented in the context of self MHC can result in tolerance. In
animals that were not tolerized, pCSP had no discernible effect. Thus,
mice treated with pCSP as neonates and reexposed to the same plasmid 6
wk later either mounted no response (evidence of tolerance) or
developed a low-titered IgG anti-CSP response (indistinguishable
from a primary response). Once tolerance was established, it persisted
long-term (
1 yr) without the need for additional pCSP. It is not
clear whether the CSP Ag produced by transfected cells persisted for
this period (potentially taken up and stored by dendritic cells);
however, the tolerogenic plasmid itself disappeared within 3 mo.
Of particular interest, CD8+ T cells from tolerant
mice transferred nonresponsiveness to naive recipients. This
observation is reminiscent of classical "infectious tolerance" as
described by Gershon and Kondo (31) (see review by Schwartz (32)).
Other investigators have shown that suppressor cells are present in
neonatal mice (33, 34). However, many mechanisms might account for the
development of tolerance, and many of these involve cells that are not
of the CD8+ phenotype (32). Indeed, in our own studies,
active suppression was not always observed (see legend to Fig. 1
).
Given the complexity of these issues, further study will be needed to
clarify the contribution of CD8+ T cells to pCSP-induced
tolerance.
Animal studies and preliminary results from phase I clinical trials indicate that DNA vaccines can be safely administered to adults. However, our findings indicate that a CSP-encoding DNA vaccine has the potential to induce tolerance rather than immunity in newborns. This finding is in contrast to the activity of plasmids encoding a variety of other malaria proteins (such as PySSP2 and PyHEP17 (35)) examined in our lab and to those encoding Ags from flu, rabies, and hepatitis B that have been studied by other investigators (18, 19, 20, 21, 22). In those cases, neonatal plasmid administration primed recipients to mount Ag-specific Ab and/or CTL responses, rather than inducing tolerance.
Our studies of DNA vaccines against multiple malaria Ags used the same 1012/1020 vectors. Because tolerance was observed with pCSP but not with these other plasmids, we conclude that it is the nature of the encoded Ag rather than the vector that determines whether a plasmid will be tolerogenic. In this context, soluble CSP protein is not immunogenic in neonatal mice, suggesting that poorly immunogenic Ags may be more likely to induce neonatal tolerance. Given the importance of vaccines in preventing childhood diseases, our observations support the need for thorough safety and efficacy testing of each DNA vaccine targeted for use in children or newborns. This may be accomplished by studying the effect of these vaccines in young animals whose immune system reflects the functional activity and maturational age of the targeted human population.
| Acknowledgments |
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| Footnotes |
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2 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Dennis M. Klinman, Building 29A, Room 3D10, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, Bethesda, MD 20892. E-mail address: ![]()
3 Abbreviations used in this paper: pCSP, plasmid encoding the circumsporozoite protein of the Plasmodium yoelii malaria parasite; MACS, magnetic cell sorting. ![]()
Received for publication September 25, 1998. Accepted for publication December 21, 1998.
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