Patent Grant
10624962
The Sequence Listing associated with this application is filed in electronic forma via EFS-Web and hereby incorporated by reference into the specification in its entirety. The name of the text file containing the Sequence Listing is Sequence_Listing_15356_00006. The size of the text filed is 11 KB, and the text file was created on Jul. 18, 2011.
Polysaccharide vaccines, when prepared without carrier protein, lack immune memory responses. Currently known conjugated vaccines include bacterial capsular polysaccharides such as Haemophilus influenzae type b, Neisseria meningitidis group C, and Streptococcus pnemoniae serotypes 1, 3, 4, 5, 6B, 7F, 9V, 14, 19F, 23F. These vaccines are covalently conjugated to a carrier protein, such as tetanus toxoid, diphtheria toxoid, CRM197, a mutant nontoxic diphtheria toxin, or Neisseria meningitidis outer membrane protein. These polysaccharide conjugate vaccines could induce T-cell dependent response, especially in infants below the age of two years; and they could prime long term immunologic memory, produce high affinity antibody, and could lower the rate of nasopharyngeal colonization and transmission.
However, the majority of the currently marketed bacterial polysaccharide conjugate vaccines applied tetanus toxoid (TT) or diphtheria toxoid (DT) as a carrier protein. TT and DT, these two toxoid proteins, are regular vaccines for infants/children; high frequency vaccination of TT and DT within a short time could have impact on the immunogenicity and safety. (Reduced response to multiple vaccines sharing common protein epitopes that are administered simultaneously to infants. Infect. Immun. 1998; 66(5):2093-8; Immunogenicity and safety of a combination pneumococcal-meningococcal vaccine in infants: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA 2005; 293(14):1751-8). Therefore, this invention provides a new type of the carrier protein LTS61K for its use on the conjugate vaccine.
This invention includes polysaccharide conjugation with a detoxified E. coli heat labile enterotoxin (LT) useful as vaccine to protect or immunize against the effects of infectious bacteria such as Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae and alleviate travel diarrhea caused by enterotoxigenic E. coli.
One aspect of this invention relates to covalently conjugated polysaccharide-LTS61K vaccines isolated in purified form. These conjugated products have unexpectedly superior immunogenic and bactericidal properties in mammals. Another aspect relates to a method of administering an effective amount of conjugated polysaccharide-LTS61K vaccine to a mammal in need of protection from Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib). The vaccines of the present invention stimulate T-helper cell response, exhibit strong booster response upon re-exposure and have high antibody titers.
Yet another aspect of the invention relates to the method of producing conjugated polysaccharide-LTS61K by reductive amination and isolating purified conjugated product. In accordance with the present invention, it was discovered that the preferred method of conjugating polysaccharide and LTS61K for making the vaccine of the present invention is periodate oxidation of native PS followed by reductive amination.
The LTS61K employed in the conjugates of the present invention is described in PCT Application Number PCT/US2007/075801, filed Aug. 13, 2007; in U.S. Applications Numbers US11/779,419 filed Jul. 18, 2007, U.S. Ser. No. 12/120,953 filed May 15, 2008, and U.S. Ser. No. 12/729,649 filed Mar. 23, 2010; and in Taiwan Patent Application No. 95139707 filed Oct. 27, 2006 and issued January 2009. The subject matter described in each of these applications is hereby incorporated by reference.
We have now discovered that conjugated polysaccharide-LTS61K vaccines made in accordance with the present invention surprisingly induce higher polysaccharide-specific IgG antibody titers and greater bactericidal activity in sera than that of polysaccharide or polysaccharide mixed with LTS61K.
A list of abbreviations employed herein is as follows:
The new carrier protein employed in the conjugates of the present invention is detoxified recombinant E. coli heat-labile enterotoxin mutant, LT, more specifically LTS61K. In the LT mutant, the A and B sub-units form a typical AB5 holotoxin structure. The detoxified LT mutant (LTS61K) contains a mutated mature sub-unit A (LTA) that includes K at amino acid position 61 and a wild-type mature sub-unit B (LTB). LTS61K renders the product significantly less toxic than wild-type LT. The carrier protein is depicted in
The invention of the LTS61K, which was selected as one of the starting materials for the present invention, is based on the unexpected discovery that an LT containing a mutated LTA exhibits reduced toxicity compared to its wild type counterpart while retaining immunogenicity. This mutated LTA has an amino acid substitution at the position corresponding to position 61 of a wild-type LTA, whose amino acid sequence is shown in SEQ ID NO:1. Accordingly, LTS61K features an isolated polypeptide including a mutated LTA that contains an amino acid residue other than S, T, and F, at the position corresponding to position 61 of SEQ ID NO:1. The substituting amino acid residue can be D, E, H, I, K, L, N, P, Q, R, Y or W. It can be a naturally occurring amino acid or a non-naturally occurring amino acid, e.g., a D-amino acid or a β-amino acid. In one example, the LTA has the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:2, 3, 4 or 5. An LT containing this mutated LTA exhibits reduced toxicity, i.e., <10-5-fold that of a wild-type LT containing SEQ ID NO:1.
In accordance with the present invention, Haemophilus influenzae type B was cultured and its capsular polysaccharide antigen, polyribosylribitol phosphate (PRP), was purified. The PRP is linear, has a negative charge and is hydrophilic. The Hib PRP saccharide with molecular weight 345 and formula 10C, 18H, 11O, 1P is depicted as in
PRP is conjugated onto LTS61K by a chemical reductive amination reaction employing appropriate molar ratios of polysaccharide PRP to protein (LTS61K) which produce conjugate vaccines. Ranges of molar ratios of PRP:LTS61K are shown in Table 1, below. Preferably, the range of molar ratios of PRP:LTS61K is between about 3:1 and about 60:1, and mole/mole 104−/PRP is between about 0.1 and about 0.4.
Further in accordance with the present invention, a variety of different types of the bacterial capsular polysaccharides antigens from Haemophilus influenzae type b and Streptococcus pneumoniae are chemically conjugated with the LTS61K protein by reductive amination reactions. A variety of different molar ratios of NaIO4:PRP as shown in Table 1, above, were employed to oxidize polysaccharides to produce short lengths of polysaccharides with different repeating units. Following the proper molar ratio of the polysaccharide reacted with LTS61K, the successfully conjugated and purified polysaccharide-LTS61K conjugate products were obtained. The products were in soluble form and were physically and chemically evaluated by SEC-HPLC, orcinol, SDS-PAGE, western blotting, IEF, GM1-binding activity, circular dichroism and fluorescent assays to identify the successful chemical conjugation of the polysaccharide antigen and LTS61K carrier protein.
Example of the Procedure of Making Polysaccharide Conjugated with LTS61K:
A variety of potential conjugation processes are illustrated in
In accordance with the present invention, a polysaccharide is cleaved by periodate oxidation to smaller fragments to produce aldehyde end groups. Thereafter, conjugation of the oxidized polysaccharide to LTS61K protein is carried out by reductive amination. More specifically, an example of the process is as follows:
A. Polysaccharide activation (periodate oxidation): Native polyribosylribitol phosphate (PRP), which is purified capsular polysaccharide of Haemophilus influenzae type b, in an amount of 5 mg/mL is mixed with periodate IO4−) 0.3 or 0.6 or 1.2 mg/mL (molar ratio (m/m) of IO4−to PRP=0.1, 0.2, 0.4). This mixture was allowed to stand at 4° C. in the dark for 24 hours. Then glycerol was added to terminate the reaction. The resulting oxidized PRP underwent dialysis against ddH2O using 3.5 K membrane to remove impurities. The resulting product was sterile filtered with 0.22 um filter. The periodate oxidation procedure provided fragmentation of the polysaccharide PRP into different chain lengths. The range of average number of repeating units of PRP was about 40 to 10.
B. Polysaccharide-LTS61K conjugation: Preparation of PRP and LTS61K conjugate, mixture of oxidized PRP obtained from above, purified LTS61K (which was disclosed in the previous obtained/filed patents) and sodium cyanoborohydride (NaBH3CN), in 10 mg/mL, 3 mg/mL and 10 mg/mL, respectively, the reaction was carried for 2 weeks at 4° C. in the dark. The reaction was terminated by adding sodium borohydride NaBH4 to quench unreacted aldehydes on PRP, the preparation was then dialyzed against ddH2O with 10 K membrane.
C. Characterization of the polysaccharide conjugated LTS61K products: Following the proper molar ratio of the polysaccharide reacted with LTS61K, the successfully conjugated and purified polysaccharide-LTS61K conjugate products were obtained. The products with soluble form were physically, chemically and biologically evaluated by SEC-HPLC, Orcinol, SDS-PAGE, Western blotting, IEF, GM1-binding activity, circular dichroism and fluorescent assays to confirm the successful chemical conjugation of the polysaccharide antigen and LTS61K carrier protein, ratio of polysaccharide to LTS61K protein, and its immunogenicity.
Reference is now made to the Figures of drawings which pertain to confirmation of structure and purity of the conjugates and vaccine.
Table 2, below, is the result of a GM1 binding assay that confirms that LTS61K protein retained its binding activity following conjugation.
Mammalian pre-clinical studies showing efficacy of the polysaccharide-LTS61K conjugates:
New Zealand White rabbits were immunized intramuscularly three times, at two week intervals, using the intended human dose of the polysaccharide, polysaccharide mixed with LTS61K, or polysaccharide-LTS6K conjugate to evaluate the potency of the conjugate vaccines. All vaccine preparations contained no AlPO4 or other related adjuvant. The immune responses of all vaccines were determined by ELISA to detect anti-polysaccharide antigen specific IgG titers and serum bactericidal assay to detect the functional activity of the antibodies. The study results indicated that only successfully conjugated polysaccharide-LTS61K vaccines could induce higher polysaccharide-specific IgG antibody titers and greater bactericidal activity in sera than that of polysaccharide alone, or polysaccharide mixed with LTS61K only. The animal immunogenicity studies suggest that detoxified E. coli heat-labile enterotoxin holotoxin including LTS61K protein is useful as carrier protein of polysaccharide to significantly stimulate a specific immune response of polysaccharide antigens.
Reference is now made to additional Figures of drawings that pertain to results of initial mammalian studies.
Additional studies were conducted employing the procedures and observing the results set forth below:
New Zealand White rabbits were immunized intramuscularly three times and four times, at two week intervals, using the intended human dose of the polysaccharide, polysaccharide mixed with LTS61K, and polysaccharide-LTS61K conjugate to evaluate the potency of the conjugate vaccines. All preparations contained no AlPO4 or other related adjuvant. The immune responses of all vaccines were determined by ELISA to detect anti-polysaccharide antigen specific IgG titers and serum bactericidal assay to show the functional activity of the antipolysaccharide antibodies. The responses of sera anti-LTS61K IgG titers were also determined by ELISA, and in vitro Caco-2 cell cAMP induction and Y-1 adrenal cell toxicity rounding up study were used to determine the sera anti-LTS61K Ab neutralizing ability with the wild type LT. In vivo rabbit ileal loop challenge studies were conducted to examine the function of the anti-LTS61K antibodies. The animal immunogenicity studies suggest that detoxified E. coli heat-labile enterotoxin holotoxin including LTS61K protein is useful as carrier protein of polysaccharide to significantly stimulate a specific response of polysaccharide antigens. LTS61K, itself, can be used as an immunogen, and, effectively produces antibodies against wild type LT.
A. Rabbit immunogenicity studies. Rabbit immunization intramuscularly using 10 ug dose of PRP, with test articles including: PRP, PRP conjugated with LTS61K and PRP mixed with LTS61K; two and three boosters were given at biweekly intervals. Blood samples were collected at 14 days after each immunization, and collected serum samples were stored at −80° C. until use.
B. Anti-polysaccharide and anti-LTS61K antibodies determined by ELISA. PRP-BSA conjugate was coated on the 96-well plate in the concentration of PRP at 100 ng/well for anti-PRP antibodies determination, and coated with LTS61K at 250 ng/well for the anti-LTS61K antibodies determination. The coated plates were incubated for 16 hours at 4° C., and following incubated with 5% skim milk as blocking buffer for one hour at 37° C. Animal sera were tested starting from a dilution of 1:50. Specific antibodies were measured using a horseradish peroxidate-conjugated goat anti-rabbit IgG incubated for 1 hour at 37° C., and revealed the antibodies by adding TMB (tetramethyl benzidine) peroxidase substrate, and after 10 minutes, the reaction was terminated by the addition of 12% H2SO4 and the absorbance was read at OD (optical density) 650-450 nm (reference wavelength 650 nm). The ELISA titers were expressed as the reciprocal of the last dilution which gave OD 450≥0.5.
C. Serum bactericidal assay. Antibody dependent complement mediated bactericidal activity was conducted for the serum diluted titers that kill more than 50% of the Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) colonies. Serum samples were pretreated in 56° C. for 30 minutes to inactivate the complement of rabbit serum. Two fold serial dilutions of the serum samples with volume of 10 uL in 96-well U-bottom plates were prepared. Following, added 20 uL of the diluted Hib culture which was prepared in 1000 CFU/20 uL. The mixtures were further incubated at 37° C. with 5% CO2 for 15 minutes, and added 50 uL of the 1:1 hank's buffer diluted baby rabbit complement into each well, and incubated the mixture at 37° C. with 5% CO2 for 60 minutes. Plated 5 uL of the baby rabbit complement added mixture in the chocolate agar plates, and incubated the plates at 37° C. with 5% CO2 for 16 hours. Counted the Hib colony forming units and determined the serum dilution titers that killed more than 50% Hib colonies. All the serum samples are compared with the reciprocal number of dilution titers in graphics.
D. Induction of cAMP study in Caco-2 cells by the neutralized wild type LT with rabbit anti-LTS61K serum antibody was performed, using a cyclic AMP (cAMP) EIA kit (Enzo Life Science). Ten nanograms of wild type LT were incubated with 150 uL anti-LTS61K rabbit serum (1:100 dilution) at room temperature. After one hour incubation, the mixture was added to the Caco-2 cell plate (5×104 cell/well), and Caco-2 cells were further incubated at 37° C. with 5% CO2 for 2 hours. Following, cells were washed with PBS, and lysed with 0.1M HCL (200 uL per well), and neutralized with 0.1M NaOH. The cell lysis products were collected by centrifugation at 660×G for 10 mins at room temperature. The resultant suspensions were assayed for intracellular cAMP levels by utilizing the commercial EIA kit.
E. Neutralization study of wild type LT with serious dilutions of rabbit anti-LTS61K serum was examined on Y-1 mouse adrenal tumor cells. For the Y-1 cell assay, serial two fold dilutions of rabbit sera 50×, 100× to 102,400× were premixed with wild type LT 10−5 ug (which is the EC50, that the toxin concentration of the wild type LT to produce greater than 50% cell rounding up on Y-1 adrenal cell), following the mixture were added to Y-1 adrenal cell, 5×104 cells/well. The cells were observed for morphological changes (cell rounding up) after 24 hours incubation.
F. Rabbit ileal loop fluid accumulation study: the neutralization of the rabbit anti-LTS61K serum antibody against the wild type LT was conducted in the rabbit ileal loop assay. Rabbit ileal loops with 5.5 cm segments were made on the rabbits after being immunized with PRP or PRP conjugated with LTS61K or PRP mixed with LTS61K. Wild type LT in the concentration ranges from 0.01 to 1 ug were administrated to each study animal; the amount of fluid accumulated in each segment was measured after 18 hours.
Results of the Immunogenicity Effect of Polysaccharide Conjugated with LTS61K: Mammalian Pre-Clinical Studies Showing Efficacy of the Polysaccharide-LTS61K Conjugates
The study results are described below with reference to
Antibodies to PRP and to LTS61K were determined by ELISA. Results of immunogenicity in rabbits were shown in
In
The protective potential of the anti-PRP antibodies induced by the conjugates were evaluated by testing the bactericidal activity of the rabbit sera. The bactericidal titers were determined against Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) Eagen strain, data were presented as reciprocal serum dilution that killed more than 50% of the Hib colonies.
A re-boosted study was conducted on rabbits after they received a primary-three immunization of the PRP-LTS61K conjugates. The results are summarized in
Regarding
Table 3 shows that wild type LT toxin at 10 ng was unable to stimulate an increase of intracellular releasing of the cAMP levels in Caco-2 cells, only when rabbit sera with high anti-LTS61K antibodies; those were PRP-LTS61K conjugates and PRP mixed with LTS61K immunized rabbit sera. In contrast, rabbit sera obtained from PRP immunized rabbits did not prevent wild type LT from increasing cAMP levels in Caco-2 cells.
A neutralization study of wild type LT with serial dilutions of rabbit anti-LTS61K serum was conducted on Y-1 mouse adrenal tumor cells. The results in Table 4 demonstrate that only those rabbits' sera present with the anti-LTS61K antibodies effectively neutralize the toxicity of the wild type LT, which occurred on PRP-LT61K conjugates and PRP mixed with LTS61K immunized rabbit sera, but not in sera of rabbits immunized with PRP.
The data in Table 5 shows that at the concentration of 0.01 ug per 5.5 cm segment ileal loop of wild type LT fluid accumulation was induced in the rabbit with no anti-LTS61K antibodies; however, in the rabbit with anti-LTS61K antibodies, there was no fluid accumulation. These results confirm those previously obtained in vitro Caco-2 cAMP induction and Y-1 adrenal cell neutralization studies, that serum anti-LTS61K antibodies are able to neutralize the wild type LT. Severe hemorrhagic lesions on ileum mucosa were observed on the rabbit without anti-LTS61K Ab administered with wild type LT in 0.5 and 1.0 ug per segment.
The results of an animal immunogenicity study as an example of pneumococcal polysaccharide serotype 14 covalent conjugated with LTS61K is shown in
Many modifications and alterations of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention which is defined by the claims.
Priority is claimed to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/330,650, filed on May 3, 2010, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
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