De novo syntheses of Marburg virus antigens from adenovirus vectors induce potent humoral and cellular immune responses

Abstract

Marburg virus (MARV) is an African filovirus that causes a deadly hemorrhagic fever in humans, with up to 90% mortality. Currently, there are no MARV vaccines or therapies approved for human use. We hypothesized that developing a vaccine that induces a de novo synthesis of MARV antigens in vivo will lead to strong induction of both a humoral and cell-mediated immune response against MARV. Here, we develop and characterize three novel gene-based vaccine candidates which express the viral glycoprotein (GP) from either the Ci67, Ravn or Musoke strain of MARV. Immunization of mice with complex adenovirus (Ad)-based vaccine candidates (cAdVax vaccines), led to efficient production of both antibodies and cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) specific to Musoke strain GP and Ci67 strain GP, respectively. Antibody responses were also shown to be cross-reactive across the MARV strains, but not cross-reactive to Ebola virus, a related filovirus. Additionally, three 1 × 10 8 pfu doses of vaccine vector were demonstrated to be safe in mice, as this did not lead to any detectable toxicity in liver or spleen. These promising results indicate that a cAdVax-based vaccine could be effective for induction of both humoral and cell-mediated immune responses to multiple strains of the Marburg virus.