Immunogenicity and Cross-Reactivity of Rhesus Adenoviral Vectors

Adenovirus (Ad) vectors are being investigated as vaccine candidates, but baseline antivector immunity exists in human populations to both human Ad (HuAd) and chimpanzee Ad (ChAd) vectors. In this study, we investigated the immunogenicity and cross-reactivity of a panel of recently described rhesus adenoviral (RhAd) vectors. RhAd vectors elicited T cells with low exhaustion markers and robust anamnestic potential. Moreover, RhAd vector immunogenicity was unaffected by high levels of preexisting anti-HuAd immunity. Both HuAd/RhAd and RhAd/RhAd prime-boost vaccine regimens were highly immunogenic, despite a degree of cross-reactive neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) between phylogenetically related RhAd vectors. We observed extensive vector-specific cross-reactive CD4 T cell responses and more limited CD8 T cell responses between RhAd and HuAd vectors, but the impact of vector-specific cellular responses was far less than that of vector-specific NAbs. These data suggest the potential utility of RhAd vectors and define novel heterologous prime-boost strategies for vaccine development. IMPORTANCE To date, most adenoviral vectors developed for vaccination have been HuAds from species B, C, D, and E, and human populations display moderate to high levels of preexisting immunity. There is a clinical need for new adenoviral vectors that are not hindered by preexisting immunity. Moreover, the development of RhAd vector vaccines expands our ability to vaccinate against multiple pathogens in a population that may have received other HuAd or ChAd vectors. We evaluated the immunogenicity and cross-reactivity of RhAd vectors, which belong to the poorly described adenovirus species G. These vectors induced robust cellular and humoral immune responses and were not hampered by preexisting anti-HuAd vector immunity. Such properties make RhAd vectors attractive as potential vaccine vectors.