Adjuvanted Fusion Protein Vaccine Induces Durable Immunity to Onchocerca volvulus in Mice and Non-Human Primates

Authors

Nathan M. Ryan, Thomas Jefferson UniversityFollow
Jessica A. Hess, Thomas Jefferson UniversityFollow
Erica J. Robertson, Thomas Jefferson UniversityFollow
Nancy Tricoche
Cheri Turner
Jenn Davis
Nikolai Petrovsky
Melissa Ferguson
William J. Rinaldi
Valerie M. Wong
Ayako Shimada, Thomas Jefferson UniversityFollow
Bin Zhan
Maria Elena Bottazzi
Benjamin L. Makepece
Sean A. Gray
Darrick Carter
Sara Lustigman
David Abraham, Thomas Jefferson UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-6-2023

Comments

This article is the author's final published version in Vaccines, Volume 11, Issue 7, 2023, Article number 1212.

The published version is available at https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11071212. Copyright © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Abstract

Onchocerciasis remains a debilitating neglected tropical disease. Due to the many challenges of current control methods, an effective vaccine against the causative agent Onchocerca volvulus is urgently needed. Mice and cynomolgus macaque non-human primates (NHPs) were immunized with a vaccine consisting of a fusion of two O. volvulus protein antigens, Ov-103 and Ov-RAL-2 (Ov-FUS-1), and three different adjuvants: Advax-CpG, alum, and AlT4. All vaccine formulations induced high antigen-specific IgG titers in both mice and NHPs. Challenging mice with O. volvulus L3 contained within subcutaneous diffusion chambers demonstrated that Ov-FUS-1/Advax-CpG-immunized animals developed protective immunity, durable for at least 11 weeks. Passive transfer of sera, collected at several time points, from both mice and NHPs immunized with Ov-FUS-1/Advax-CpG transferred protection to naïve mice. These results demonstrate that Ov-FUS-1 with the adjuvant Advax-CpG induces durable protective immunity against O. volvulus in mice and NHPs that is mediated by vaccine-induced humoral factors.

Recommended Citation

Ryan, Nathan M.; Hess, Jessica A.; Robertson, Erica J.; Tricoche, Nancy; Turner, Cheri; Davis, Jenn; Petrovsky, Nikolai; Ferguson, Melissa; Rinaldi, William J.; Wong, Valerie M.; Shimada, Ayako; Zhan, Bin; Bottazzi, Maria Elena; Makepece, Benjamin L.; Gray, Sean A.; Carter, Darrick; Lustigman, Sara; and Abraham, David, "Adjuvanted Fusion Protein Vaccine Induces Durable Immunity to Onchocerca volvulus in Mice and Non-Human Primates" (2023). Department of Microbiology and Immunology Faculty Papers. Paper 177.
https://jdc.jefferson.edu/mifp/177

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Language

English