Abstract
Nucleic acid immunization is a novel vaccination technique to induce antigen-specific immune responses. We have developed expression cassettes for cell surface markers CD80 and CD86, two functionally related costimulatory molecules that play an important role in the induction of T cell-mediated immune responses. Coimmunization of these expression plasmids, along with plasmid DNA encoding for HIV-1 antigens, did not result in any significant change in the humoral response; however, we observed a dramatic increase in cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) induction as well as T-helper cell proliferation after the coadministration of CD86 genes, in contrast, coimmunization with a CD80 expression cassette resulted in a minor, but positive increase in T-helper cell or CTL responses. This strategy may be of value for the generation of rationally designed vaccines and immune therapeutics.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 641-646 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Nature biotechnology |
Volume | 15 |
Issue number | 7 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 1997 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Costimulatory molecules
- DNA vaccines
- Immune responses
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biotechnology
- Bioengineering
- Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology
- Molecular Medicine
- Biomedical Engineering