Comparing Adjuvanted H28 and Modified Vaccinia Virus Ankara Expressing H28 in a Mouse and a Non-Human Primate Tuberculosis Model

Here we report for the first time on the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of a vaccine strategy involving the adjuvanted fusion protein “H28” (consisting of Ag85B-TB10.4-Rv2660c) and Modified Vaccinia Virus Ankara expressing H28. We show that a heterologous prime-boost regimen involving priming with H28 in a Th1 adjuvant followed by boosting with H28 expressed by MVA (H28/MVA28) induced the highest percentage of IFN-γ expressing T cells, the highest production of IFN-γ per single cell and the highest induction of CD8 T cells compared to either of the vaccines given alone. In contrast, in mice vaccinated with adjuvanted recombinant H28 alone (H28/H28) we observed the highest production of IL-2 per single cell and the highest frequency of antigen specific TNF-α/IL-2 expressing CD4 T cells pre and post infection. Interestingly, TNF-α/IL-2 expressing central memory-like CD4 T cells showed a significant positive correlation with protection at week 6 post infection, whereas the opposite was observed for post infection CD4 T cells producing only IFN-γ. Moreover, as a BCG booster vaccine in a clinically relevant non-human primate TB model, the H28/H28 vaccine strategy induced a slightly more prominent reduction of clinical disease and pathology for up to one year post infection compared to H28/MVA28. Taken together, our data showed that the adjuvanted subunit and MVA strategies led to different T cell subset combinations pre and post infection and that TNF-α/IL-2 double producing but not IFN-γ single producing CD4 T cell subsets correlated with protection in the mouse TB model. Moreover, our data demonstrated that the H28 vaccine antigen was able to induce strong protection in both a mouse and a non-human primate TB model.