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Clinical and Vaccine Immunology, June 2007, p. 748-755, Vol. 14, No. 6
1071-412X/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/CVI.00037-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Cellular and Humoral Immune Responses to Alphavirus Replicon Vaccines Expressing Cytomegalovirus pp65, IE1, and gB Proteins ^,

Elizabeth A. Reap,^* Sergey A. Dryga, John Morris, Bryan Rivers, Pamela K. Norberg, Robert A. Olmsted, and Jeffrey D. Chulay

AlphaVax, Inc., Research Triangle Park, North Carolina

Received 17 January 2007/ Returned for modification 7 March 2007/ Accepted 10 April 2007

Development of vaccines against cytomegalovirus (CMV) is an important public health priority. We used a propagation-defective, single-cycle RNA replicon vector system derived from an attenuated strain of an alphavirus, Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus, to produce virus-like replicon particles (VRP) expressing various combinations of pp65, IE1, or gB proteins of human CMV. Protein expression in VRP-infected cells was highest with single-promoter replicons expressing pp65, IE1, a pp65/IE1 fusion protein, or the extracellular domain of gB and with double-promoter replicons expressing pp65 and IE1. Protein expression was lower with double- and triple-promoter replicons expressing gB, especially the full-length form of gB. BALB/c mice immunized with VRP expressing gB developed high titers of neutralizing antibody to CMV, and mice immunized with VRP expressing pp65, IE1, or a pp65/IE1 fusion protein developed robust antigen-specific T-cell responses as measured by gamma interferon enzyme-linked immunospot assay. Three overlapping immunodominant pp65 peptides contained a nine-amino-acid sequence (LGPISGHVL) that matches the consensus binding motif for a major histocompatibility complex H2-D^d T-cell epitope. These data provide the basis for further development and clinical evaluation of an alphavirus replicon vaccine for CMV expressing the pp65, IE1, and gB proteins.

Published ahead of print on 18 April 2007.

Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://cvi.asm.org/.

Present address: Seracare LifeSciences, Inc., Gaithersburg, MD 20877.