Demonstration of neutralizing mucosal IgA response to intranasal HIV-1 env DNA vaccines with or without the V3 glycosylation site

HIV-1 env based DNA vaccines are generally found to be poor B-cell immunogens. We examined the role of an N-glycan located in the V3 loop of HIV-1 (N306) that is known to modulate the immunogenicity of gp120. Here we describe intranasal immunizations with env (HIV-1 BRU) based genetic immunogens in combination with subcutaneous boosts of recombinant gp160 (rgp160) in mice. Immunization with DNA alone resulted in detectable IgA responses to rgp160 in both faeces and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid, but the additional boosting increased the faecal IgA titres only. Protein boosting was required for induction of faecal IgA antibodies capable of neutralizing a homologous laboratory strain and a subtype B primary isolate. The B-cell response towards V3 loop peptides was not only directed against the homologous subtype B but also against the subtype F. In contrast to our previous observations on IgG, there were no differences in anti-gp160 IgA titres elicited by the N-glycan mutant and the wild-type immunogen. These results indicate that intranasal administration of plasmids containing env in combination with a subcutaneous boost proved to be an effective way of eliciting neutralizing mucosal IgA against HIV-1.