Fig 5.

The SP mutation does not affect immunogenicity of hexon-modified Ad vectors. PyCSP-specific T cell responses were assessed by ICS 2 weeks after immunization with PyCSP expressing vectors. Targets were MHC-matched A20.2J cells pulsed with synthetic peptides, as indicated. (A) BALB/c mice were preimmunized with two injections (1 ×10¹⁰ PU each) of Ad5Null vector administered at an interval of 4 weeks. Four weeks later, naive mice (−) and the preimmunized mice (+) were immunized with AdCSP or PyCSP-expressing Ad5 hexon-modified vectors containing HVRs from Ad43 with or without the SP mutation, as indicated. (B) Naive mice were immunized with E1-, E3-deleted, PyCSP-expressing, Ad5 hexon-modified vectors containing HVRs from Ad48 with or without the SP mutation, an E1-, E3-, E4-deleted vector (11D) with a wild-type hexon, and an E1-, E3-, E4-deleted hexon-modified vector containing the HVRs from Ad43, as indicated. Error bars indicate standard deviations of the means (6 per group). *, P < 0.05, **, P < 0.01, and ***, P < 0.001, compared with the value for naive mice.