A Molecular Mucosal Adjuvant To Enhance Immunity Against Pneumococcal Infection In The Elderly.
- Author:
Yoshiko FUKUYAMA
1
;
Yorihiko IKEDA
;
Junichiro OHORI
;
Gen SUGITA
;
Kazuyoshi ASO
;
Keiko FUJIHASHI
;
David E BRILES
;
Jerry R MCGHEE
;
Kohtaro FUJIHASHI
Author Information
- Publication Type:Review
- Keywords: Mucosa; Vaccination; Aging; Bacterial infection
- MeSH: Aged*; Aging; Animals; Antibody Formation; Bacterial Infections; DNA; DNA, Complementary; Humans; Immunity, Mucosal; Immunoglobulin A; Mice; Mucous Membrane; Plasmids; Pneumococcal Infections*; Pneumonia; Respiratory Tract Infections; Streptococcus pneumoniae; Vaccination
- From:Immune Network 2015;15(1):9-15
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
- Abstract: Streptococcus pneumoniae (the pneumococcus) causes a major upper respiratory tract infection often leading to severe illness and death in the elderly. Thus, it is important to induce safe and effective mucosal immunity against this pathogen in order to prevent pnuemocaccal infection. However, this is a very difficult task to elicit protective mucosal IgA antibody responses in older individuals. A combind nasal adjuvant consisting of a plasmid encoding the Flt3 ligand cDNA (pFL) and CpG oligonucleotide (CpG ODN) successfully enhanced S. pneumoniae-specific mucosal immunity in aged mice. In particular, a pneumococcal surface protein A-based nasal vaccine given with pFL and CpG ODN induced complete protection from S. pneumoniae infection. These results show that nasal delivery of a combined DNA adjuvant offers an attractive potential for protection against the pneumococcus in the elderly.
