qs-21 and Vaccinia

Recombinant proteins are being evaluated as smallpox and monkeypox vaccines because of their perceived safety compared to live vaccinia virus. Previously, we demonstrated that three or more injections of a Ribi-type adjuvant with a combination of three proteins from the outer membranes of intracellular (L1 protein) and extracellular (A33 and B5 proteins) forms of vaccinia virus protected mice against a lethal intranasal challenge with vaccinia virus. Here, we compared several adjuvants and found that QS-21 and to a lesser extent alum+CpG oligodeoxynucleotides accelerated and enhanced neutralizing antibody responses to a mixture of L1 and A33 proteins, provided the highest ratio of IgG2a to IgG1 isotype response, and protected mice against disease and death after only two immunizations 3 weeks apart. In addition, monkeys immunized with recombinant vaccinia virus proteins and QS-21 developed neutralizing antibody to monkeypox virus and had reduced virus load, skin lesions, and morbidity compared to the non-immunized group following monkeypox virus challenge.

Topics: Adjuvants, Immunologic; Alum Compounds; Animals; Antibody Formation; Female; HeLa Cells; Humans; Macaca fascicularis; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Monkeypox virus; Oligonucleotides; Orthopoxvirus; Poxviridae Infections; Recombinant Proteins; Saponins; Vaccinia; Vaccinia virus; Viral Envelope Proteins; Viral Vaccines

Topics: Amino Acid Sequence; BCG Vaccine; Breast Neoplasms; Clinical Trials, Phase I as Topic; Genetic Vectors; Hemocyanins; Humans; Molecular Sequence Data; Mucin-1; Neoplasms; Saponins; Vaccines, Synthetic; Vaccinia