Universal vaccines against immunogens of pathogenic organisms that provide organism-specific and cross-group protection

Abstract

The present disclosure provides, in part, a priming and boosting vector-based platform to develop vaccines against pathogens that is tailored to elicit a broad T cell response targeting conserved viral epitopes. The universal vaccines are prepared against an immunogen of an infectious pathogenic organism selected from a virus, a bacteria, a fungus or a protozoan comprising at least one ribonucleic acid (RNA) polynucleotide comprising an open reading frame encoding at least one polypeptide antigen or an immunogenic fragment thereof, wherein the polypeptide antigen, or the immunogenic fragment thereof, comprises a conserved internal protein that is enriched in CD8+ T cell recognition antigens. The effectiveness of the priming and boosting platform is tested in a humanized mouse model comprising a fully functional human immune system.

1 . A universal vaccine against an immunogen of an infectious pathogenic organism selected from a virus, a bacteria, a fungus or a protozoan comprising at least one ribonucleic acid (RNA) polynucleotide comprising an open reading frame encoding at least one polypeptide antigen or an immunogenic fragment thereof, wherein the polypeptide antigen, or the immunogenic fragment thereof, comprises a conserved internal protein that is enriched in CD8+ T cell recognition antigens,
 (a) wherein a cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitope consists of peptides of from 8-11 residues in length, and   (b) wherein an immune response elicited in response to the vaccine comprises one or more of:
 (i) activation of one or more T cell populations directed to at least one antigen present in the vaccine; or 
 (ii) neutralization of infectivity of the pathogen; or 
 (iii) an antigen-specific response comprising destruction of the pathogen; lysis of cells infected with the pathogen, or both; 
 compared to a control. 
   
     
     
         2 . The universal vaccine according to  claim 1 , wherein the activated cell populations comprise activated cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs). 
     
     
         3 . The universal vaccine according to  claim 2 , wherein the activated CTLs comprise one or more of an NK cell population, an NKT cell population, an LAK cell population, a CIK cell population, an MAIT cell population, a CD8+ CTL population, or a CD4+ CTL population. 
     
     
         4 . The universal vaccine according to  claim 1 , wherein the conserved immunogenic polypeptide or immunogenic fragment is a viral internal matrix protein, a viral capsid protein, a viral nuclear protein, a viral nucleoprotein, a viral glycoprotein, a viral phosphoprotein, a viral envelope protein, a viral protease, a reverse transcriptase, or a viral polymerase. 
     
     
         5 . The universal vaccine of  claim 1  prepared by a process comprising:
 a. identifying and selecting from a consensus amino acid sequence a highly conserved internal protein of an infectious pathogen or an immunogenic fragment thereof enriched in CD8+ T cell recognition antigens; 
 b. constructing immunogen sequences of the highly conserved internal proteins in (a); 
 c. constructing:
 i. a Streptomyces phage SV1.0 DNA vector comprising the immunogen sequences of (b); 
 ii. an adenovirus-based (AdV) vector comprising the immunogen sequences of (b); and 
 iii. an attenuated, replication-competent recombinant vaccinia virus based (VV) vector comprising the immunogen sequences of (b); and 
 
 d. propagating separately each of the recombinant vectors comprising encoded immunogens in (c) for immunizing a subject in vivo in an amount effective to elicit or stimulate a therapeutic or prophylactic cell mediated immune response against an infection with the infectious pathogen by:
 i. priming the fully human immune system by immunizing with the phage DNA vector of (c)(i); and 
 ii. boosting the fully human immune system by immunizing with the AdV vector of (c)(ii) followed by the VV vector of (c)(iii), or the VV vector of (c)(iii) followed by the AdV vector of (c)(ii). 
 
 
     
     
         6 . The universal vaccine prepared by the process according to  claim 5 , wherein the conserved immunogenic protein or immunogenic fragment is a viral internal matrix protein, a viral capsid protein, a viral nuclear protein, a viral nucleoprotein, a viral glycoprotein, a viral phosphoprotein, a viral envelope protein, a viral protease, a reverse transcriptase, or a viral polymerase. 
     
     
         7 . An engineered nucleic acid encoding at least one RNA polynucleotide comprising an open reading frame encoding at least one polypeptide antigen or an immunogenic fragment thereof, wherein the polypeptide antigen, or the immunogenic fragment thereof, comprises a conserved internal protein that is enriched in CD8+ T cell recognition antigens of the universal vaccine of  claim 1 . 
     
     
         8 . An expression vector comprising engineered nucleic acid encoding at least one RNA polynucleotide comprising an open reading frame encoding at least one polypeptide antigen or an immunogenic fragment thereof, wherein the polypeptide antigen, or the immunogenic fragment thereof, comprises a conserved internal protein that is enriched in CD8+ T cell recognition antigens of the universal vaccine of  claim 1 . 
     
     
         9 . A host cell comprising an engineered nucleic acid encoding at least one RNA polynucleotide comprising an open reading frame encoding at least one polypeptide antigen or an immunogenic fragment thereof, wherein the polypeptide antigen, or the immunogenic fragment thereof, comprises a conserved internal protein that is enriched in CD8+ T cell recognition antigens of the universal vaccine of  claim 1 . 
     
     
         10 .- 23 . (canceled)