Myeloid and plasmacytoid dendritic cells are susceptible to recombinant adenovirus vectors and stimulate polyfunctional memory T cell responses.

Although replication-incompetent recombinant adenovirus (rAd) type 5 is a potent vaccine vector for stimulating T and B cell responses, high seroprevalence of adenovirus type 5 (Ad5) within human populations may limit its clinical utility. Therefore, alternative adenovirus serotypes have been studied as vaccine vectors. In this study, we characterized the ability of rAd5 and rAd35 to infect and induce maturation of human CD11c(+) myeloid dendritic cells (MDCs) and CD123(+) plasmacytoid dendritic cells (PDCs), and their ability to stimulate Ag-specific T cells. Both MDCs and PDCs were found to express the primary receptor for Ad35 (CD46) but not Ad5 (coxsackie-adenovirus receptor; CAR). Both dendritic cell (DC) subsets were also more susceptible to rAd35 than to rAd5. MDCs were more susceptible to both rAd35 and rAd5 than were PDCs. Whereas rAd35 used CD46 for entry into DCs, entry of rAd5 may be through a CAR-independent pathway. Exposure to rAd35 but not rAd5 induced high levels of IFN-alpha in PDCs and phenotypic differentiation in both DC subsets. MDCs and PDCs exposed to either rAd5 or rAd35 encoding for CMV pp65 were able to present pp65 and activate CMV-specific memory CD8(+) and CD4(+) T cells in a dose-dependent manner, but MDCs stimulated the highest frequencies of pp65-specific T cells. Responding T cells expressed multiple functions including degranulation (CD107a surface mobilization) and production of IFN-gamma, IL-2, TNF-alpha, and MIP-1beta. Thus, the ability of rAd35 to naturally target important DC subsets, induce their maturation, and appropriately present Ag to T cells may herald greater in vivo immunogenicity than has been observed with rAd5.