Fig. 1

Induction of GagL_85–93-specific CD8⁺ T cell responses by combined Ad-based vaccines. a, b CB6F1 mice were immunized twice in a 3-week interval by subcutaneous injection with 10⁹ vp of the indicated vaccines, the groups that received only one transgene-encoding vector received an equal amount of Ad.empty. Vaccines were mixed and injected into both hind footpads. c, d CB6F1 mice were immunized twice in a three-week interval by subcutaneous injection of 10⁹ vp of the indicated vaccines, the two vaccines Ad.Gag_C1K and Ad.pIXgp70 were either mixed and injected into both hind footpads (“mixed”), or the two vaccines were kept separate and injected into one footpad each (“left/right”). GagL_85–93-specific CD8⁺ T cell responses were analyzed in peripheral blood samples two weeks after the second immunization (a, c). Three weeks after the second immunization, mice were infected with FV, and the viral load in spleens was analyzed three weeks after the FV challenge (b, d). The data shown were obtained in two independent experiments. Each dot represents one mouse, lines indicate mean (a, c) or median (b, d) values, dashed lines indicate the limit of detection. Data were analyzed by Kruskall–Wallis One Way Analysis of Variance on Ranks and Student–Newman–Keuls multiple comparison procedure; significant differences (P < 0.05) compared to unvaccinated mice are indicated by *, significant differences compared to mice vaccinated with the respective single vaccine are indicated by #. Sufficient statistical power was verified [SP = 0.89 (a), 1.0 (b), 0.89 (c), 0.99 (d)]