Importance of the field: High mortality rates with cancers warrant further development of earlier diagnostics and better treatment strategies. Membrane-bound erythropoietin-producing hepatocellular...

Adenoviral (Ad) vectors have emerged as a promising gene delivery platform for a variety of therapeutic and vaccine purposes during last two decades. However, the presence of preexisting Ad immunity and the rapid development of Ad vector immunity still pose significant challenges to the clinical use of these vectors. Innate inflammatory response following Ad vector administration may lead to systemic toxicity, drastically limit vector transduction efficiency and significantly abbreviate the duration of transgene expression. Currently, a number of approaches are being extensively pursued to overcome these drawbacks by strategies that target either the host or the Ad vector. In addition, significant progress has been made in the development of novel Ad vectors based on less prevalent human Ad serotypes and nonhuman Ad. This review provides an update on our current understanding of immune responses to Ad vectors and delineates various approaches for eluding Ad vector immunity. Approaches targeting the host and those targeting the vector are discussed in light of their promises and limitations.

Adenoviral (Ad) vectors can efficiently transduce a broad range of cell types and have been used extensively in preclinical and clinical studies for gene delivery applications. The presence of preexisting Ad immunity in the majority of human population and a rapid development of immune response against the Ad vector backbone following the first inoculation with the vector have impeded clinical use of these vectors. In addition, a number of animal inoculation studies have demonstrated that high systemic doses of Ad vectors invariably lead to initiation of acute inflammatory responses. This is mainly due to activation of innate immunity by vector particles. In general, vector and innate immune responses drastically limit the vector transduction efficiency and the duration of transgene expression. In order to have a predictable response with Ad vectors for gene therapy applications, the above limitations must be overcome. Strategies that are being examined to circumvent these drawbacks of Ad vectors include immunosuppression, immunomodulation, serotype switching, use of targeted Ad vectors, microencapsulation of Ad vectors, use of helper-dependent (HD) Ad vectors, and development of nonhuman Ad vectors. Here we review the current understanding of immune responses to Ad vectors, and recent advances in the strategies for immune evasion to improve the vector transduction efficiency and the duration of transgene expression. Development of novel strategies for targeting specific cell types would further boost the utility of Ad vectors by enhancing the safety, efficacy and duration of transgene expression.

Pre-existing immunity against adenoviruses may compromise the efficacy of adenoviral vectors for vaccination and gene therapy. The purpose of this study was to determine whether encapsulation of adenovirus recombinants into biodegradable alginate microparticles could circumvent the vector-specific immune response. Mice were immunized either intranasally (i.n.) or intraperitoneally (i.p.) with human adenovirus type 5 (HAd5), resulting in the development of virus-specific antibodies. Immunized and naı¨ve mice were inoculated with AdCA36lacZ (an E1-deleted HAd5 recombinant containing the bacterial β-galactosidase (LacZ) gene), encapsulated (E) into alginate microparticles, or nonencapsulated (NE) ie, as a virus suspension. LacZ expression in animals immunized once (1×) or twice (2×) with HAd5 and subsequently inoculated with NE-AdCA36lacZ (NE-Z) was significantly (P0.05) in LacZ expression in mice immunized 1× or 2× with HAd5 that were subsequently inoculated with E-AdCA36lacZ (E-Z) compared to those levels obtained in E-Z inoculated naı¨ve animals. Similar results were obtained with i.n. or i.p. inoculated animals. These results indicate that microencapsulation of recombinant adenovirus effectively circumvented the vector-specific immune response.

Influenza viruses are responsible for millions of cases globally and significantly threaten public health. Since pandemic and zoonotic influenza viruses have emerged in the last 20 years and some of the viruses have resulted in high mortality in humans, a universal influenza vaccine is needed to provide comprehensive protection against a wide range of influenza viruses. Current seasonal influenza vaccines provide strain-specific protection and are less effective against mismatched strains. The rapid antigenic drift and shift in influenza viruses resulted in time-consuming surveillance and uncertainty in the vaccine protection efficacy. Most recent universal influenza vaccine studies target the conserved antigen domains of the viral surface glycoproteins and internal proteins to provide broader protection. Following the development of advanced vaccine technologies, several innovative strategies and vaccine platforms are being explored to generate robust cross-protective immunity. This review provides the latest progress in the development of universal influenza vaccines.