REPLICATION AND IMMUNOGENICITY OF AD7-HEPATITIS-B, AD4-HEPATITIS-B, AND AD5-HEPATITIS-B VIRUS SURFACE-ANTIGEN RECOMBINANTS, WITH OR WITHOUTA PORTION OF E3 REGION, IN CHIMPANZEES

Human adenovirus vectors containing intact or largely deleted E(3) reg ion were used to construct adenovirus-hepatitis B recombinant viruses (Ad-HepB) and shown to produce substantial amount of recombinant prote in, hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), in tissue culture. Previously we showed that these viruses were able to elicit good anti-HBs antibo dies in a dog model. In the present study, the Ad-HepB viruses were ev aluated for replication and immunogenicity in chimpanzees which sustai n permissive infection by human adenoviruses. Recombinants containing entire E(3) region showed better replication pattern than their E(3) d eleted counterparts as evidenced by longer duration and high titers of virus shedding. The effect of E(3) region was also seen in the antibo dy titers against HBsAg in that the E(3) containing viruses showed bet ter response than the E(3) deleted viruses. The importance off, region for the development of adenovirus vectored vaccines is further discus sed. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.