AAV Vectors Vaccines Against Infectious Diseases

Abstract

Since their discovery as a tool for gene transfer, vectors derived from the adeno-associated virus (AAV) have been used for gene therapy applications and attracted scientist to this field for their exceptional properties of efficiency of in vivo gene transfer and the level and duration of transgene expression. For many years, AAVs have been considered as low immunogenic vectors due to their ability to induce long-term expression of non-self-proteins in contrast to what has been observed with other viral vectors, such as adenovirus, for which strong immune responses against the same transgene products were documented. The perceived low immunogenicity likely explains why the use of AAV vectors for vaccination was not seriously considered before the early 2000s. Indeed, while analyses conducted using a variety of transgenes and animal species slowly changed the vision of immunological properties of AAVs, an increasing number of studies were also performed in the field of vaccination. Even if the comparison with other modes of vaccination was not systemically performed, the analyses conducted so far in the field of active immunotherapy strongly suggest that AAVs possess some interesting features to be used as tools to produce an efficient and sustained antibody response. In addition, recent studies also highlighted the potential of AAVs for passive immunotherapy. This review summarizes the main studies conducted to evaluate the potential of AAV vectors for vaccination against infectious agents and discusses their advantages and drawbacks. Altogether, the variety of studies conducted in this field contributes to the understanding of the immunological properties of this versatile virus and to the definition of its possible future applications.

Integrin‐Mediated Interactions Control Macrophage Polarization in 3D Hydrogels

“…In addition, both PEGDA and GelMA hydrogels appeared to generate pro-inflammatory response even in the absence of a polarizing stimuli, with PEGDA having a stronger effect. Although the expression and role of iNOS and Arginase-1 are better defined in mice models; recent work have also reported their expression and function in human macrophages [31, 33] .…”

Nanomaterials for cancer immunotherapy

“…found that a TGF-β siRNA-loaded liposome-protamine-hyaluronic acid (LPH) nanosystem efficiently boosted the vaccine efficiency in an advanced melanoma tumor model by increasing tumor infiltrating CD8 + T cells and decreasing Tregs [120]. IDO, an enzyme that catalyzes tryptophan degradation, is also an important regulator in tumor-mediated immune tolerance [175]. T cells will undergo proliferative arrest when exposed to IDO-provoked tryptophan shortage [176].…”

Electrochemical DNA biosensor for the detection of human papillomavirus E6 gene inserted in recombinant plasmid

“…These oncogenes are constantly expressed in the HR-HPV and are responsible for the malignant transformation of cervical cancer (Azam and Shams-ul-Islam, 2010;Boccardo et al, 2010;Carter et al, 2011;Stanley, 2010;Vici et al, 2014). Therefore, the E6 and E7 genes represent the ideal targets for development of therapeutic vaccines, which potentially eliminate pre-existing lesions and malignant tumors by generating cellular immunity against HPV-infected cells (Huang et al, 2010;Kawana et al, 2012;Nieto and Salvetti, 2014).…”