A novel vaccine strategy employing serologically different chimpanzee adenoviral vectors for the prevention of HIV-1 and HCV coinfection

Hartnell, Felicity, Brown, Anthony, Capone, Stefania, Kopycinski, Jakub, Bliss, Carly, Makvandi-Nejad, Shokouh, Swadling, Leo, Ghaffari, Emma, Cicconi, Paola, Del Sorbo, Mariarosaria, Sbrocchi, Roberta, Esposito, Ilaria, Vassilev, Ventzislav, Marriott, Paula, Gardiner, Clair M., Bannan, Ciaran, Bergin, Colm, Hoffmann, Matthias, Turner, Bethany, Nicosia, Alfredo, Folgori, Antonella, Hanke, Tomá?, Barnes, Eleanor and Dorrell, Lucy 2019. A novel vaccine strategy employing serologically different chimpanzee adenoviral vectors for the prevention of HIV-1 and HCV coinfection. Frontiers in Immunology 9 , 3175. 10.3389/fimmu.2018.03175

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Abstract

Background: Nearly 3 million people worldwide are coinfected with HIV and HCV. Affordable strategies for prevention are needed. We developed a novel vaccination regimen involving replication-defective and serologically distinct chimpanzee adenovirus (ChAd3, ChAd63) vector priming followed by modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) boosts, for simultaneous delivery of HCV non-structural (NSmut) and HIV-1 conserved (HIVconsv) region immunogens. Methods: We conducted a phase I trial in which 33 healthy volunteers were sequentially enrolled and vaccinated via the intramuscular route as follows: 9 received ChAd3-NSmut [2.5 × 1010 vp] and MVA-NSmut [2 × 108 pfu] at weeks 0 and 8, respectively; 8 received ChAdV63.HIVconsv [5 × 1010 vp] and MVA.HIVconsv [2 × 108 pfu] at the same interval; 16 were co-primed with ChAd3-NSmut [2.5 × 1010 vp] and ChAdV63.HIVconsv [5 × 1010 vp] followed at week 8 by MVA-NSmut and MVA.HIVconsv [both 1 × 108 pfu]. Immunogenicity was assessed using peptide pools in ex vivo ELISpot and intracellular cytokine assays. Vaccine-induced whole blood transcriptome changes were assessed by microarray analysis. Results: All vaccines were well tolerated and no vaccine-related serious adverse events occurred. Co-administration of the prime-boost vaccine regimens induced high magnitude and broad T cell responses that were similar to those observed following immunization with either regimen alone. Median (interquartile range, IQR) peak responses to NSmut were 3,480 (2,728–4,464) and 3,405 (2,307–7,804) spot-forming cells (SFC)/106 PBMC for single and combined HCV vaccinations, respectively (p = 0.8). Median (IQR) peak responses to HIVconsv were 1,305 (1,095–4,967) and 1,005 (169–2,482) SFC/106 PBMC for single and combined HIV-1 vaccinations, respectively (p = 0.5). Responses were maintained above baseline to 34 weeks post-vaccination. Intracellular cytokine analysis indicated that the responding populations comprised polyfunctional CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. Canonical pathway analysis showed that in the single and combined vaccination groups, pathways associated with antiviral and innate immune responses were enriched for upregulated interferon-stimulated genes 24 h after priming and boosting vaccinations. Conclusions: Serologically distinct adenoviral vectors encoding HCV and HIV-1 immunogens can be safely co-administered without reducing the immunogenicity of either vaccine. This provides a novel strategy for targeting these viruses simultaneously and for other pathogens that affect the same populations.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Medicine
Publisher:	Frontiers Media
ISSN:	1664-3224
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	5 January 2021
Date of Acceptance:	24 December 2018
Last Modified:	23 May 2023 16:02
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/137189

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