Anti-major histocompatibility complex antibody responses in macaques via intradermal DNA immunizations

In simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) models, immunization of macaques wit h uninfected human cells or human major histocompatibility complex (MHC) pr oteins can induce xenogeneic immune responses which can protect the animals from subsequent SIV challenges. These studies suggest that the induction o f anti-MHC immune responses can be a viable vaccine strategy against human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). We have previously shown in mouse st udies that DNA immunization with class I and class II MHC-encoding plasmids can elicit both xenogeneic and allogeneic antibody responses against confo rmationally intact MHC molecules (Vaccine 17 (1999) 2479-92). Here we take these observations one step closer to human applications and report that in tradermal needle immunizations of non-human primates with plasmid DNA encod ing human MHC alleles can safely elicit xenogeneic anti-MHC antibody respon ses. Moreover, injecting macaques with DNA encoding a specific macaque allo geneic MHC induced anti-allogeneic MHC antibodies production. These studies show that DNA immunization with MHC-encoding vectors can indeed be used to induce specific anti-human xenogeneic, as well as anti-macaque allogeneic MHC immunity in non-human primates. This strategy could thus be used to mob ilize anti-MHC antibody response which may be useful as part of an anti-HIV -1 vaccination approach. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved .