TY - JOUR
T1 - Induction of antigen-specific Th1-biased immune responses by plasmid DNA in Schistosoma-infected mice with a preexistent dominant Th2 immune profile
AU - Ayash-Rashkovsky, Mila
AU - Weisman, Ziva
AU - Zlotnikov, Sonia
AU - Raz, Eyal
AU - Bentwich, Zvi
AU - Borkow, Gadi
N1 - Funding Information:
The work was supported in part by the grants from The Institute of Advanced Therapy (IAT) for Center of Excellence in AIDS Research in Israel, and the Horowitz Foundation, granted to the Kaplan AIDS Center. We thank Prof. Ruth Arnon and Dr. Rebecca Tarrab-Hazdai for their support, helpful discussions, and for providing us with Schistosoma infected mice, Schistosoma cercaria, and adult worm antigens.
PY - 2001/1/1
Y1 - 2001/1/1
N2 - A requisite for vaccines to confer protection against intracellular infections such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus or Mycobacterium tuberculosis is their capacity to induce Th1 immune responses. However, they may fail to do so in Africa and South East Asia, where most individuals have a dominant preexistent Th2 immune profile, due to persistent helminthic parasitic infections, which may undermine any Th1 response. It is well established that DNA vaccines induce strong Th1 biased immune responses against an encoded antigen, depending on the route and mode of immunization. Here, we demonstrate that intradermal immunization with plasmid DNA encoding β-gal (pCMV-LacZ) of Schistosoma-infected mice, with preexistent dominant Th2 immune background, induce a strong Th1 antiq-β-gal response, as opposed to immunized with β-gal only. Importantly, the established protective Th2 immune response to schistosomes was not disrupted. These findings strongly support the possibility of using plasmid DNA as a Th1 inducing adjuvant when immunizing populations with a strong preexistent Th2 immune profile.
AB - A requisite for vaccines to confer protection against intracellular infections such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus or Mycobacterium tuberculosis is their capacity to induce Th1 immune responses. However, they may fail to do so in Africa and South East Asia, where most individuals have a dominant preexistent Th2 immune profile, due to persistent helminthic parasitic infections, which may undermine any Th1 response. It is well established that DNA vaccines induce strong Th1 biased immune responses against an encoded antigen, depending on the route and mode of immunization. Here, we demonstrate that intradermal immunization with plasmid DNA encoding β-gal (pCMV-LacZ) of Schistosoma-infected mice, with preexistent dominant Th2 immune background, induce a strong Th1 antiq-β-gal response, as opposed to immunized with β-gal only. Importantly, the established protective Th2 immune response to schistosomes was not disrupted. These findings strongly support the possibility of using plasmid DNA as a Th1 inducing adjuvant when immunizing populations with a strong preexistent Th2 immune profile.
KW - DNA vaccines
KW - Schistosoma
KW - Th1 and Th2 cytokine profile
KW - β-galactosidase
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0034807171&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1006/bbrc.2001.4698
DO - 10.1006/bbrc.2001.4698
M3 - Article
C2 - 11302738
AN - SCOPUS:0034807171
SN - 0006-291X
VL - 282
SP - 1169
EP - 1176
JO - Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
JF - Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
IS - 5
ER -
