Division of High-risk Pathogens, Bureau of Infectious Disease Diagnosis Control, Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, Cheongju, South Korea.
Present address: Forensic DNA Division, Gwangju Institute, National Forensic Service, Jeonnam, South Korea.
BMC Microbiol. 2021 Mar 8;21(1):76. doi: 10.1186/s12866-021-02121-5.
Anthrax and smallpox are high-risk infectious diseases, and considered as potential agents for bioterrorism. To develop an effective countermeasure for these diseases, we constructed a bivalent vaccine against both anthrax and smallpox by integrating a gene encoding protective antigen (PA) of Bacillus anthracis to the genome of the attenuated vaccinia virus strain, KVAC103.
Immunization with this bivalent vaccine induced antibodies against both PA and vaccinia virus in a mouse model. We also observed that the efficacy of this vaccine can be enhanced by combined immunization with immunoadjuvant-expressing KVAC103. Mouse groups co-immunized with PA-expressing KVAC103 and either interleukin-15 (IL-15) or cholera toxin subunit A (CTA1)-expressing KVAC103 showed increased anti-PA IgG titer and survival rate against B. anthracis spore challenge compared to the group immunized with PA-expressing KVAC103 alone.
We demonstrated that the attenuated smallpox vaccine KVAC103 is an available platform for a multivalent vaccine and co-immunization of immunoadjuvants can improve vaccine performance.
炭疽和天花都是高风险传染病，被认为是生物恐怖主义的潜在制剂。为了开发针对这些疾病的有效对策，我们通过将编码炭疽芽孢杆菌保护性抗原（PA）的基因整合到减毒牛痘病毒株 KVAC103 的基因组中，构建了一种针对炭疽和天花的双价疫苗。
在小鼠模型中，该双价疫苗的免疫接种诱导了针对 PA 和牛痘病毒的抗体。我们还观察到，通过用表达免疫佐剂的 KVAC103 联合免疫，可以增强这种疫苗的功效。与单独用表达 PA 的 KVAC103 免疫的小鼠组相比，用表达 PA 的 KVAC103 与白细胞介素 15（IL-15）或霍乱毒素亚单位 A（CTA1）表达的 KVAC103 共同免疫的小鼠组显示出更高的抗 PA IgG 滴度和对炭疽芽孢杆菌孢子攻击的存活率。
我们证明了减毒天花疫苗 KVAC103 是一种多价疫苗的有效平台，免疫佐剂的共同免疫可以提高疫苗的性能。
