Research article
A single immunization with HA DNA vaccine by electroporation induces early protection against H5N1 avian influenza virus challenge in mice
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* Corresponding author: Ze Chen chenze2005@263.net
1 State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, PR China
2 Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China
3 College of Life Science, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, Hunan, PR China
4 Shanghai Institute of Biological Products, Shanghai 200052, PR China
BMC Infectious Diseases 2009, 9:17 doi:10.1186/1471-2334-9-17
Published: 12 February 2009Abstract
Background
Developing vaccines for the prevention of human infection by H5N1 influenza viruses is an urgent task. DNA vaccines are a novel alternative to conventional vaccines and should contribute to the prophylaxis of emerging H5N1 virus. In this study, we assessed whether a single immunization with plasmid DNA expressing H5N1 hemagglutinin (HA) could provide early protection against lethal challenge in a mouse model.
Methods
Mice were immunized once with HA DNA at 3, 5, 7 days before a lethal challenge. The survival rate, virus titer in the lungs and change of body weight were assayed to evaluate the protective abilities of the vaccine. To test the humoral immune response induced by HA DNA, serum samples were collected through the eye canthus of mice on various days after immunization and examined for specific antibodies by ELISA and an HI assay. Splenocytes were isolated after the immunization to determine the antigen-specific T-cell response by the ELISPOT assay.
Results
Challenge experiments revealed that a single immunization of H5N1 virus HA DNA is effective in early protection against lethal homologous virus. Immunological analysis showed that an antigen-specific antibody and T-cell response could be elicited in mice shortly after the immunization. The protective abilities were correlated with the amount of injected DNA and the length of time after vaccination.
Conclusion
A single immunization of 100 μg H5 HA DNA vaccine combined with electroporation was able to provide early protection in mice against homologous virus infection.