Plant heat shock protein 90 as carrier-adjuvant for immunization against a reporter antigen

2013 
a b s t r a c t Here, we evaluated the modulation of the immune response induced by Hsp90 of Nicotiana benthami- ana (NbHsp90.3) against the Maltose Binding Protein (MBP) as a reporter antigen. Equimolar quantities of recombinant proteins were administered in mice as follows: MBP alone (MBP group), a mixture of MBP and rNbHsp90.3 (MBP + rNbHsp90.3 group) and the fusion of MBP to rNbHsp90.3 (MBP-rNbHsp90.3 group). The covalent linkage between NbHsp90.3 and MBP to bring a fusion protein was essential to induce the strong specific antibody response with predominance of IgG2a. Eighty-four days after the first immunization, splenocyte proliferation from MBP-rNbHsp90.3-immunized mice was consistently higher than that from MBP and MBP + rNbHsp90.3 groups. In addition, splenocytes from MBP-rNbHsp90.3 immu- nized mice produced higher levels of IFN- than controls. Finally, both formulations with rNbHsp90.3 significantly enhanced the MHC class I expression levels, but only rNbHsp90.3 covalent bound to MBP induced a specific cellular immune response against MBP measured as increased percentage of CD8 + T cells. Taken together, these results suggest that plant HSP90s could be incorporated as adjuvants in vac- cines that require the generation of a Th1 response along with a CD8 cytotoxic cell response to confer immunity.
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