Induction of durable cellular immune responses by vaccination is an important strategy for the control of persistent pathogen infection. Viral vectors are promising vaccine tools for eliciting antigen-specific T-cell responses. Repeated vaccination may contribute to durable memory T-cell induction, but anti-vector antibodies could be an obstacle to its efficacy. We previously developed a Sendai virus (SeV) vector vaccine and showed the potential of this vector for efficient T-cell induction in macaques. Here, we examined whether repeated SeV vector vaccination with short intervals can enhance antigen-specific CD8(+) T-cell responses. Four rhesus macaques possessing the MHC-I haplotype 90-120-Ia were immunized three times with intervals of three weeks. For the vaccination, we used replication-defective F-deleted SeV vectors inducing CD8(+) T-cell responses specific for simian immunodeficiency virus Gag(206-216) and Gag(241-249), which are dominant epitopes restricted by 90-120-Ia-derived MHC-I molecules. All four animals showed higher Gag(206-216)-specific and Gag(241-249)-specific CD8(+) T-cell responses after the third vaccination than those after the first vaccination, indicating enhancement of antigen-specific CD8(+) T-cell responses by the second/third SeV vector vaccination even with short intervals. These results suggest that repeated SeV vector vaccination can contribute to induction of efficient and durable T-cell responses.
Copyright © 2012 Institut Pasteur. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.