Abstract
The hepatitis B and C viruses (HBV/HCV) are major causes for chronic liver disease globally. For HBV new antiviral compounds can suppress the viral replication for years, but off-therapy responses are rare. Current therapies based on interferon and ribavirin can cure 45–85% of the treated HCV-infected patients largely depending on the viral genotype. New regimens including protease inhibitors will be introduced during 2011 and these will increase the cure rates for the hardest to treat HCV genotype 1 from 45 to 65%. Here a major need is to replace the immunomodulatory effects of interferon and/or ribavirin. Thus, therapeutic vaccines have a place in both chronic HBV and HCV infection. Unfortunately, none of these viruses can infect mice whereby substitute models are needed. We have used several types of murine models to predict the clinical efficacy of therapeutic vaccines for chronic HBV and HCV infections. In this chapter we describe transdermal delivery of genetic vaccines using the Helios Gene Gun device. A central role is that the model should have generally functional immune response, but with selective defects towards HBV and/or HCV. Thus, mice with stable integrated transgenes are useful. However, as a simple model to study the hepatic entry and functionality of a HBV- and/or HCV-specific immune responses other models are needed, where a killed transgenic hepatocyte is replaced by a healthy non-transgenic hepatocyte. Here we can effectively apply a technique termed hydrodynamic injection, which makes 10–30% of hepatocytes transiently transgenic for any plasmid. Within this chapter the methods used to characterize transiently transgenic mice are described. The main methods are the hydrodynamic injection technique, detection of transgene expression by immuno-precipitation, western blot, and immunohistochemistry. Finally, the in vivo functionality of T cells can be determined by using stably transfected syngeneic tumor cell lines expressing HBV and/or HCV proteins. The tumor challenge model enables studies of in vivo T cell function, whereas the cytotoxicity assay is used to determine T cell function in vitro. Overall, these models effectively reveal the efficiency by which various vaccine technologies, including biolistic DNA vaccination can kill the “infected” hepatocyte.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Alter MJ (1997) Epidemiology of hepatitis C. Hepatology 26:62S–65S
Milich DR (1997) Pathobiology of acute and chronic hepatitis B virus infection: an introduction. J Viral Hepat 4(suppl 2):25–30
Zoulim F, Locarnini S (2009) Hepatitis B virus resistance to nucleos(t)ide analogues. Gastroenterology 137:1593–1608
Manns MP et al (2001) Peginterferon alfa-2b plus ribavirin compared with interferon alfa-2b plus ribavirin for initial treatment of chronic hepatitis C: a randomised trial. Lancet 358:958–965
McHutchison JG et al (2009) Telaprevir with peginterferon and ribavirin for chronic HCV genotype 1 infection. N Engl J Med 360:1827–1838
Ferrari C et al (1990) Cellular immune response to hepatitis B virus-encoded antigens in acute and chronic hepatitis B virus infection. J Immunol 145:3442–3449
Bowen DG, Walker CM (2005) Adaptive immune responses in acute and chronic hepatitis C virus infection. Nature 436:946–952
Yang NS et al (1990) In vivo and in vitro gene transfer to mammalian somatic cells by particle bombardment. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 87:9568–9572
Tang DC, DeVit M, Johnston SA (1992) Genetic immunization is a simple method for eliciting an immune response. Nature 356:152–154
Chisari FV (1996) Hepatitis B virus transgenic mice: models of viral immunobiology and pathogenesis. Curr Top Microbiol Immunol 206:149–173
Pasquinelli C et al (1997) Hepatitis C virus core and E2 protein expression in transgenic mice. Hepatology 25:719–727
Frelin L et al (2006) The hepatitis C virus and immune evasion: non-structural 3/4A transgenic mice are resistant to lethal tumour necrosis factor alpha mediated liver disease. Gut 55:1475–1483
Kriegs M et al (2009) The hepatitis C virus non-structural NS5A protein impairs both the innate and adaptive hepatic immune response in vivo. J Biol Chem 284:28343–28351
Lerat H et al (2002) Steatosis and liver cancer in transgenic mice expressing the structural and nonstructural proteins of hepatitis C virus. Gastroenterology 122:352–365
Ahlen G et al (2005) In vivo clearance of hepatitis C virus nonstructural 3/4A-expressing hepatocytes by DNA vaccine-primed cytotoxic T lymphocytes. J Infect Dis 192:2112–2116
Frelin L et al (2003) Low dose and gene gun immunization with a hepatitis C virus nonstructural (NS) 3 DNA-based vaccine containing NS4A inhibit NS3/4A-expressing tumors in vivo. Gene Ther 10:686–699
Frelin L et al (2004) Codon optimization and mRNA amplification effectively enhances the immunogenicity of the hepatitis C virus nonstructural 3/4A gene. Gene Ther 11:522–533
Nystrom J et al (2010) Improving on the ability of endogenous hepatitis B core antigen to prime cytotoxic T lymphocytes. J Infect Dis 201:1867–1879
Roy MJ et al (2000) Induction of antigen-specific CD8+ T cells, T helper cells, and protective levels of antibody in humans by particle-mediated administration of a hepatitis B virus DNA vaccine. Vaccine 19:764–778
Frelin L et al (2009) A mechanism to explain the selection of the hepatitis e antigen-negative mutant during chronic hepatitis B virus infection. J Virol 83:1379–1392
Acknowledgment
The following work was supported by grants from the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Cancer Society, Stockholm County Council. Dr. Lars Frelin was supported by grants from the Swedish Society of Medical Research, the Swedish Society of Medicine, Goljes Memorial Fund, the Åke Wiberg Foundation, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and from Karolinska Institutet. Dr. Gustaf Ahlén was supported by grants from Karolinska Institutet/Södertörn University (postdoctoral grant), Lars Hiertas Memorial fund, Goljes Memorial Fund, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and from Magnus Bergvalls foundation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Ahlén, G., Sällberg, M., Frelin, L. (2013). Methods for Monitoring Gene Gun-Induced HBV- and HCV-Specific Immune Responses in Mouse Models. In: Sudowe, S., Reske-Kunz, A. (eds) Biolistic DNA Delivery. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 940. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-62703-110-3_20
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-62703-110-3_20
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ
Print ISBN: 978-1-62703-109-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-62703-110-3
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols