Mucosal administration of Ag85B-ESAT-6 protects against infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and boosts prior bacillus Calmette-Guerin immunity

J Dietrich, C Andersen, R Rappuoli… - The Journal of …, 2006 - journals.aai.org
J Dietrich, C Andersen, R Rappuoli, TM Doherty, CG Jensen, P Andersen
The Journal of Immunology, 2006journals.aai.org
We have examined the intranasal administration of a vaccine against Mycobacterium
tuberculosis (M. tb) consisting of the mucosal adjuvant LTK63 and the Ag Ag85B-ESAT-6.
Vaccination with LTK63/Ag85B-ESAT-6 gave a strong and sustained Th1 response
mediated by IFN-γ-secreting CD4 cells, which led to long-lasting protection against
tuberculosis, equivalent to that observed with bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) or Ag85B-
ESAT-6 in dimethyldioctadecylammonium bromide/monophosphoryl lipid A. Because a …
Abstract
We have examined the intranasal administration of a vaccine against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb) consisting of the mucosal adjuvant LTK63 and the Ag Ag85B-ESAT-6. Vaccination with LTK63/Ag85B-ESAT-6 gave a strong and sustained Th1 response mediated by IFN-γ-secreting CD4 cells, which led to long-lasting protection against tuberculosis, equivalent to that observed with bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) or Ag85B-ESAT-6 in dimethyldioctadecylammonium bromide/monophosphoryl lipid A. Because a crucial element of novel vaccine strategies is the ability to boost BCG-derived immunity, we also tested whether LTK63/Ag85B-ESAT-6 could act as a BCG booster vaccine in BCG-vaccinated mice. We found that vaccinating with LTK63/Ag85B-ESAT-6 strongly boosted prior BCG-stimulated immunity. Compared with BCG-vaccinated nonboosted mice, we observed that infection with M. tb led to a significant increase in anti-M. tb-specific CD4 T cells in the lungs of LTK63/Ag85B-ESAT-6-boosted animals. This correlated with a significant increase in the protection against M. tb in LTK63/Ag85B-ESAT-6-boosted mice, compared with BCG-vaccinated animals. Thus, LTK63/Ag85B-ESAT-6 represents an efficient preventive vaccine against tuberculosis with a strong ability to boost prior BCG immunity.
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