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Infection and Immunity, April 2004, p. 2081-2087, Vol. 72, No. 4
0019-9567/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/IAI.72.4.2081-2087.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Intraspleen Delivery of a DNA Vaccine Coding for Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) of Brucella abortus Induces SOD-Specific CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T Cells

Molecular Immunology Laboratory, Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción,¹ Department of Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Austral, Valdivia, Chile²

Received 26 September 2003/ Returned for modification 28 October 2003/ Accepted 7 January 2004

In the development of vaccines capable of providing immunity against brucellosis, Cu-Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD) has been demonstrated to be one of the protective immunogens of Brucella abortus. In an earlier study, we provided strong evidence that intramuscular injection with a plasmid DNA carrying the SOD gene (pcDNA-SOD) was able to induce a protective immune response. The present study was designed to characterize T-cell immune responses after an intraspleen (i.s.) vaccination of BALB/c mice with pcDNA-SOD. Animals vaccinated with pcDNA-SOD did not develop SOD-specific antibodies, at least until week 4 after immunization (the end of the experiment), and in vitro stimulation of their splenocytes with either recombinant Cu-Zn SOD or crude Brucella protein induced the secretion of gamma interferon (IFN-), but not interleukin-4, and elicited the induction of cytotoxic-T-lymphocyte activity. Upon analyzing the SOD-specific T-cell responses, the pcDNA-SOD vaccination was found to be stimulating both CD4⁺- and CD8⁺-T-cell populations. However, only the CD4⁺ population was able to produce IFN- and only the CD8⁺ population was able to induce cytotoxic activity. Nevertheless, although i.s. route vaccination induces a significant level of protection in BALB/c mice against challenge with the virulent B. abortus strain 2308, vaccination by the intramuscular route with a similar amount of plasmid DNA does not protect. Based on these results, we conclude that i.s. immunization with pcDNA-SOD vaccine efficiently induced a Th1 type of immune response and a protective response that could be related to IFN- production and cytotoxic activity against infected cells by SOD-specific CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells, respectively.

Editor: J. B. Bliska

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