Project description:Vaccination against tuberculosis by intradermal Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) injection saves many lives, supposedly by inducing adaptive immune memory in lymphocytes. Epidemiologically, BCG vaccination is also associated with reduced childhood mortality unrelated to TB, which is attributed to innate immune memory, also termed trained immunity. We recently demonstrated improved protection against tuberculosis infection in highly susceptible rhesus macaques by mucosal BCG vaccination, correlating with a unique local but no peripheral immune profile. Here, we investigated local and peripheral innate immune function after intradermal versus mucosal vaccination with M. bovis BCG or the live attenuated, M. tuberculosis-derived candidate, MTBVAC. The results demonstrate an augmented frequency of trained immunity in monocytes after respiratory mucosal administration of live attenuated mycobacterial vaccines compared to intradermal immunization, with MTBVAC being equally potent as BCG. These results provide further support to strategies for improving TB vaccination and, more broadly, modulating innate immunity via mucosal surfaces.
Project description:Breastfeeding protects against mucosal infections in infants. The underlying mechanisms through which immunity develops in human milk following maternal infection with mucosal pathogens are not well understood. We simulate mucosal influenza infection through live attenuated influenza vaccination (LAIV) and compared milk and blood immune responses to inactivated influenza vaccination (IIV). Transcriptomic analysis was performed on RNA extracted from human milk and whole blood. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) on days 1 and 7 post-vaccination were compared to pre-vaccination.
