Department of Immunology, Faculty of Medical sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Parasite Immunol. 2011 Oct;33(10):561-71. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3024.2011.01318.x.
We examined the protective effect of autoclaved Leishmania major (ALM) vaccine in combination of either rectal or subcutaneous BCG on susceptible BALB/c mice. One month after BCG vaccination, BALB/c mice were immunized subcutaneously twice with ALM + alum at 3 weeks intervals. Three weeks after booster injection, 5 × 10(5) stationary phase L. major promastigotes were inoculated subcutaneously in one footpad. Immunological evaluation at before and post infectious challenge showed strong proliferative responses in the spleen cells of the rectal immunized group after stimulating with parasite lysate. High level of interferon gamma was induced in the spleen, and significant increase in the serum ratio of IgG2a/IgG1 was observed only in rectal immunized group. Rectal immunized mice showed comparable nitric oxide production and iNOS induction in peritoneal macrophages (P ≤ 0.05). The obtained results in rectal BCG vaccinated group showed no mortality but low parasite burden in the liver and spleen. In conclusion, the results of our study indicated that co-administration of rectal BCG and ALM induced protective type 1 immune responses against L. major infection. This safe and effective mucosal vaccine could be useful in prevention of human leishmaniasis infections.
我们研究了加热的利什曼原虫（ALM）疫苗与直肠或皮下卡介苗（BCG）联合使用对易感性 BALB/c 小鼠的保护作用。BCG 接种一个月后，BALB/c 小鼠每隔 3 周通过皮下注射两次 ALM+明矾进行免疫。加强注射 3 周后，将 5×10（5）个静止期 L. major 前鞭毛体皮下接种于一只足垫。在感染前和感染后进行免疫学评估，结果显示经寄生虫裂解物刺激后，直肠免疫组的脾细胞增殖反应强烈。脾细胞中诱导产生了高水平的干扰素γ，仅在直肠免疫组中观察到血清 IgG2a/IgG1 比值显著增加。直肠免疫组的腹腔巨噬细胞中产生的一氧化氮和诱导型一氧化氮合酶的水平相当（P≤0.05）。直肠 BCG 接种组的结果表明，没有死亡率，但肝脏和脾脏中的寄生虫负担较低。总之，我们的研究结果表明，直肠 BCG 和 ALM 联合使用可诱导针对 L. major 感染的保护性 1 型免疫应答。这种安全有效的黏膜疫苗可能对预防人类利什曼病感染有用。
