3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Founder virus envelope glycoproteins as novel oligomeric HIV-1 vaccine immunogens(2015-04-21) Killick, Mark AndrewThe ability to induce a broadly neutralizing antibody (bNAb) response following vaccination is regarded as a crucial aspect in developing an effective vaccine targeting the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). The bNAbs target the HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein (Env) which is exposed on the surface of the virion, thereby preventing cell entry. Previous work in our laboratory focused on the generation of a 2dCD4S60C molecule (a variant of the CD4 primary Env receptor) with higher affinity for HIV-1 Env through targeted disulphide exchange. This study reports on the design and construction of an HIV-1 subtype C founder virus consensus Env immunogen derived from newly transmitted/founder virus sequences, and the ability of the purified recombinant Env proteins (2dCD4S60C-liganded and unliganded) to induce a broadly neutralizing antibody response in small animals. A total of 1894 founder sequences from 80 HIV-1 subtype C infected patients were available and downloaded from the databases. A consensus sequence was generated for each of the patients, and this alignment was subsequently used to generate a founder virus consensus env sequence. The env sequence was used to create codon-optimized constructs encoding monomeric (gp120FVCm), dimeric (gp120FVCGCN4d) and trimeric (gp140FVCGCN4t(+) and gp140FVCGCN4t(-) founder virus conformations cloned into the pcDNA3.1(-) mammalian expression vector. All four Env constructs were successfully expressed in HEK293T mammalian cell culture. The 2dCD4S60C was expressed in E. coli BL21 (DE3) and purified by nickel affinity chromatography. Large scale expression and purification of the gp120, gp120GCN4 and gp140GCN4 +/- in the unliganded or 2dCD4S60C liganded state were purified by lectin affinity chromatography, followed by conformation and complex purification using size exclusion chromatography. Immunogens/immune complexes were evaluated by ELISA, SDS-PAGE, native PAGE and surface plasmon resonance, and confirmed they were functional and conformationally intact. Immunogenicity of each conformation alone or complexed to 2dCD4S60C was evaluated in rabbits. Breadth and potency of the rabbit sera was tested against 12 pseudoviruses (Tiers 1-3), derived from HIV-1 subtype B and C Env, using the PhenoSense Neutralizing antibody assay (Monogram Bioscience, Inc.). Minimal neutralizing breadth was obtained from animals immunized exclusively with Env conformations. However, animals that received the Env/2dCD4S60C complex showed extensive neutralizing capacity against all 12 viruses tested, including the tier 2 and 3 virus strains. End-point ELISA titer results revealed that the rabbits that were immunized with Env/2dCD4S60C produced both Env and 2dCD4S60C specific titers, but those directed towards 2dCD4 were on average 10x lower than the 2dCD4S60C control group. This implies a proportion of the NAb activity is directed towards conserved epitopes exposed on the Env/2dCD4S60C immunogens. Overall, these results show that the use of founder Env/2dCD4S60C complexes as vaccine immunogens dramatically improves the antibody neutralization breadth and magnitude as compared to founder Env or 2dCD4S60C alone. This level of broad neutralization has not been previously reported in the literature, and these results provide encouraging data to inform us of the best envelope vaccine immunogen to include in a preventative vaccine.Item Short hairpin RNA-directed knockdown of epidermal growth factor receptor in human oesophageal squamous carcinoma cell lines(2008-05-27T12:52:55Z) Killick, Mark AndrewEpidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a transmembrane receptor tyrosine kinase which activates, upon EGFR binding, a number of signaling pathways including the mitogenic protein kinase pathway (MAPK) and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase cascade (PI3K). Over expression of EGFR is a common feature in variety of human cancers including lung, colorectal, breast, pancreatic and oesophageal cancers and results in autonomous cell growth, enhanced metastatic potential, tissue invasion and increased resistance to current cancer therapeutics. Thus EGFR has been identified as a potential target in cancer therapeutics. Using the RNA interference (RNAi) pathway, the aim was to specifically knockdown expression levels of endogeneous EGFR in human oesophageal squamous carcinoma cell (HOSCC) lines. The RNAi pathway was initiated through the transfection of three specifically designed short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) against human EGFR. The shRNAs were specifically designed using bioinformatics tools and their individual knockdown efficacy determined through the introduction of an exogeneous based target reporter systems, psiCHECK and pcieGFP. Expression levels of EGFR were determined using Western blot analysis followed by densitometry. Knockdown of EGFR was achieved by all three EGFR shRNAs in the three HOSCC cell lines (WHCO1, WHCO5 and WHCO6) despite low transfection levels of ~10%. Greastest knockdown of EGFR (85%) was achieved by EGFR sh2 in WHCO5. EGFR sh2 and sh1 resulted in average knockdown of EGFR of ~ 65% in WHCO1 and WHCO5 respectively. Weakest knockdown of EGFR (~ 20%) was obtained by all three EGFR shRNAs following transfection of WHCO6. RNAi-based approaches therefore show substantial potential for the specific and efficient targeting of EGFR in human cancer cells.