Immune Response of Mice Infected with Recombinant Vaccinia Viruses Carrying the HIV gag Gene

• Published in: MICROBIOLOGY and IMMUNOLOGY Vol. 35; no. 10; pp. 849 - 861
• Main Authors: Sugata, Fumihiko, Aoki, Naoto, Shioda, Tatsuo, Hayashi, Takuma, Shimada, Kaoru, Mitamura, Keiji, Shibuta, Hiroshi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tokyo Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.01.1991; Center For Academic Publications Japan; Center for Academic Publications Japan
• Subjects: AIDS/HIV; Animals; Antibodies, Viral - biosynthesis; Biological and medical sciences; Blotting, Northern; Cell Line; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; Experimental viral diseases and models; Female; Genes, gag - immunology; Genes, pol - genetics; HIV Antibodies - immunology; HIV Core Protein p24 - immunology; HIV-1 - genetics; Human immunodeficiency virus; Infectious diseases; Medical sciences; Mice; Mice, Inbred Strains; Species Specificity; Transfection; Vaccines, Synthetic - administration & dosage; Vaccines, Synthetic - immunology; Vaccinia virus; Vaccinia virus - genetics; Vaccinia virus - immunology; Viral diseases; Chordopoxvirinae; Immune response; Recombinant virus; Orthopoxvirus; Rodentia; Retroviridae; Cellular immunity; Infection; Virus; Vaccinia virus; Vertebrata; Experimental disease; Mammalia; Mouse; Poxviridae; Animal; Viral disease; Lentivirinae; Human immunodeficiency virus; Humoral immunity
• ISSN: 0385-5600; 1348-0421
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1348-0421.1991.tb02025.x

We examined mouse immune response to 4 kinds of recombinant vaccinia viruses carrying the HIV gag gene, including vac-gag/pol, which produces HIV-like particles with processed gag proteins; vac-gag, which also produces HIV-like particles but with unprocessed gag protein; and vac-gag-pol-fuse and vac-es-gag/pol, neither of which produces such particles but releases reverse transcriptase and gag protein, respectively, from infected cells. Although infection of mice with recombinant vaccinia viruses induced production of the anti-p24 antibody in all mice, vac-gag/pol and vac-es-pol induced higher production than the other two recombinants. Increase in [3H]thymidine uptake by splenic lymphocytes following p24 antigen stimulation was most evident in mice infected with vac-gag/pol. Thus, the highest immune reaction, both humoral and cellular, was elicited by vac-gag/pol, indicating that among those tested, this recombinant vaccinia virus is the best candidate for a vaccine that induces anti-HIV gag immunity.