Baculovirus Capsid Display Potentiates OVA Cytotoxic and Innate Immune Responses

PAULA MOLINARI; MARÍA INÉS CRESPO; MARÍA J GRAVISACO; OSCAR TABOGA; GABRIEL MORÓN

PLOS ONE

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE

Año: 2011 vol. 6 p. 1 - 13

1932-6203

Baculoviruses (BV) are DNA viruses that are pathogenic for insects. Although BV infect a range of mammalian cell types, theydo not replicate in these cells. Indeed, the potential effects of these insect viruses on the immune responses of mammals areonly just beginning to be studied. We show in this paper that a recombinant Autographa californica multiple nuclearpolyhedrosis virus carrying a fragment of ovalbumin (OVA) on the VP39 capsid protein (BV-OVA) has the capacity to act asan adjuvant and vector of antigens in mice, thereby promoting specific CD4 and cytotoxic T cell responses against OVA. BValso induced in vivo maturation of dendritic cells and the production of inflammatory cytokines, thus promoting innate andadaptive immune responses. The OVA-specific response induced by BV-OVA was strong enough to reject a challenge withOVA-expressing melanoma cells (MO5 cells) and effectively prolonged survival of MO5 bearing mice. All these findings,together with the absence of pre-existing immunity to BV in humans and the lack of viral gene expression in mammaliancells, make BV a candidate for vaccination.