Immunization with an Interferon??–gp120 Fusion Protein Induces Enhanced Immune Responses to Human Immunodeficiency Virus gp120

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Abstract
Cytokines, including interferon (IFN)–γ, can be effective immunologic adjuvants but often lack the potency of other, more reactogenic compounds. On the basis of the observation that attachment of IFN-γ to antigen could further enhance its adjuvanticity, a chimeric protein involving IFN-γ and gp120 of human immunodeficiency virus was produced, using varying lengths of amino acid linkers between the two moieties. All resultant fusion proteins appeared to be dimerized, but full IFN-γ biological activity was present only with the longest, 34-aa linker.Immunization with the fusion protein gave rise to enhanced primary antibody responses to gp120, particularly of the IgG2a subclass. In addition, both T cell proliferation and IFN-γ production in response to antigen were strongly enhanced by primary immunization with the fusion protein. IFN-γ fused to antigen is a more potent adjuvant for Th1-like responses than is IFN-γ mixed with antigen

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