Reduced immune responses after vaccination with a recombinant herpes simplex virus type 1 vector in the presence of antiviral immunity

Due to the continuous need for new vaccines, viral vaccine vectors have become increasingly attractive. In particular, herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1)-based vectors offer many advantages, such as broad cellular tropism, large DNA-packaging capacity and the induction of pro-inflammatory responses. However, despite promising results obtained with HSV-1-derived vectors, the question of whether pre-existing virus-specific host immunity affects vaccine efficacy remains controversial. For this reason, the influence of pre-existing HSV-1-specific immunity on the immune response induced with a replication-defective, recombinant HSV-1 vaccine was investigated in vivo. It was shown that humoral as well as cellular immune responses against a model antigen encoded by the vaccine were strongly diminished in HSV-1-seropositive mice. This inhibition could be observed in mice infected with wild-type HSV-1 or with a replication-defective vector. Although these data clearly indicate that pre-existing antiviral host immunity impairs the efficacy of HSV-1-derived vaccine vectors, they also show that vaccination under these constraints might still be feasible.