Cha Seung Bin, Kim Woo Sik, Kim Jong-Seok, Kim Hongmin, Kwon Kee Woong, Han Seung Jung, Eum Seok-Yong, Cho Sang-Nae, Shin Sung Jae
Department of Microbiology, Institute for Immunology and Immunological Diseases, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea.
Department of Microbiology, Institute for Immunology and Immunological Diseases, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea; Brain Korea 21 PLUS Project for Medical Science, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea.
PLoS One. 2015 Oct 28;10(10):e0141577. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0141577. eCollection 2015.
Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), the only licensed vaccine, shows limited protection efficacy against pulmonary tuberculosis (TB), particularly hypervirulent Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) strains, suggesting that a logistical and practical vaccination strategy is urgently required. Boosting the BCG-induced immunity may offer a potentially advantageous strategy for advancing TB vaccine development, instead of replacing BCG completely. Despite the improved protection of the airway immunization by using live BCG, the use of live BCG as an airway boosting agent may evoke safety concerns. Here, we analyzed the protective efficacy of γ-irradiated BCG as a BCG-prime boosting agent for airway immunization against a hypervirulent clinical strain challenge with Mycobacterium tuberculosis HN878 in a mouse TB model. After the aerosol challenge with the HN878 strain, the mice vaccinated with BCG via the parenteral route exhibited only mild and transient protection, whereas BCG vaccination followed by multiple aerosolized boosting with γ-irradiated BCG efficiently maintained long-lasting control of Mtb in terms of bacterial reduction and pathological findings. Further immunological investigation revealed that this approach resulted in a significant increase in the cellular responses in terms of a robust expansion of antigen (PPD and Ag85A)-specific CD4+ T cells concomitantly producing IFN-γ, TNF-α, and IL-2, as well as a high level of IFN-γ-producing recall response via both the local and systemic immune systems upon further boosting. Collectively, aerosolized boosting of γ-irradiated BCG is able to elicit strong Th1-biased immune responses and confer enhanced protection against a hypervirulent Mycobacterium tuberculosis HN878 infection in a boosting number-dependent manner.
牛分枝杆菌卡介苗(BCG)是唯一获得许可的疫苗,对肺结核(TB)的保护效果有限,尤其是对高毒力结核分枝杆菌(Mtb)菌株,这表明迫切需要一种符合实际的疫苗接种策略。增强卡介苗诱导的免疫力可能为推进结核病疫苗的研发提供一种潜在的有利策略,而不是完全替代卡介苗。尽管使用活卡介苗可改善气道免疫的保护作用,但将活卡介苗用作气道增强剂可能会引发安全问题。在此,我们在小鼠结核病模型中分析了经γ射线照射的卡介苗作为卡介苗初免-增强剂用于气道免疫对高毒力临床菌株结核分枝杆菌HN878攻击的保护效果。在用HN878菌株进行气溶胶攻击后,通过非肠道途径接种卡介苗的小鼠仅表现出轻微且短暂的保护作用,而接种卡介苗后再用经γ射线照射的卡介苗进行多次气溶胶增强免疫,在细菌减少和病理结果方面能有效维持对结核分枝杆菌的长期控制。进一步的免疫学研究表明,这种方法导致细胞反应显著增加,表现为抗原(PPD和Ag85A)特异性CD4 + T细胞大量扩增,同时产生IFN-γ、TNF-α和IL-2,并且在再次增强免疫时通过局部和全身免疫系统产生高水平的产生IFN-γ的回忆反应。总的来说,经γ射线照射的卡介苗气溶胶增强免疫能够引发强烈的Th1偏向性免疫反应,并以增强次数依赖的方式增强对高毒力结核分枝杆菌HN878感染的保护作用。