Antigen-coated poly α-hydroxy acid based microparticles for heterologous prime-boost adenovirus based vaccinations

Adenoviruses show promising potential as vectors for cancer vaccines, however, their high immunogenicity can be problematic when it comes to homologous prime-boost strategies. In the studies presented here we show that heterologous prime-boost vaccinations involving ovalbumin (OVA)-antigen-coated microparticles as a prime, and adenovirus encoding OVA (AdOVA) as a boost, were equally as effective as homologous AdOVA prime-boosts at generating OVA-specific CD8(+) T-cell responses, which translated into effective tumor protection. OVA-coated biodegradable poly alpha-hydroxy acid-based microparticles of varying chemistries, when used as primes in heterologous prime-boost vaccinations, were comparable in terms of promoting OVA-specific CD8(+) T cells as well as providing protection against subsequent tumor challenge. These findings auger well for using poly alpha-hydroxy acid-based microparticles in prime-boost viral vaccination strategies geared toward the safer, and potentially more efficient, generation of anti-tumor immunity. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.