Immunogenic minicells and methods of use
The disclosed invention relates to immunogenic minicells cells (anucleated) and their use to induce an immune response from a subject.
1. A fully intact eubacterial minicell for use in generating an immunogenic response in an animal, comprising a plasmid having an open reading frame encoding a bacterial antigen of interest, and a eukaryotic expression sequence operably linked to said open reading frame, such that said antigen of interest is expressed in said animal.
2. The minicell of claim 1 , wherein said eukaryotic expression sequence comprises a CMV promoter.
3. The minicell of claim 1 , wherein said eukaryotic expression sequence comprises a stress-inducible promoter.
4. The minicell of claim 1 , wherein said open reading frame is from the genome of a bacterium.
5. The minicell of claim 4 , wherein said bacterium is a pathogen.
6. The minicell of claim 5 , wherein said bacterium is selected from the group consisting of Bacillus anthracis, Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp., Chlamydia, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Borrelia burgdorfei and Shigella spp.
7. The minicell of claim 1 , further comprising a prokaryotic expression sequence operably linked to said open reading frame, such that said antigen of interest is expressed in the minicell and the animal.
8. The minicell of claim 7 , wherein said antigen of interest expressed in the minicell is displayed on the surface of the minicell.