Dendritic cell ‐targeting DNA‐based nasal adjuvants for protective mucosal immunity to Streptococcus pneumoniae

ABSTRACT In order to develop safe vaccines for effective mucosal immunity to major pulmonary bacterial infections, one must consider appropriate vaccine antigens (Ags), delivery systems and nontoxic molecular adjuvants. Such vaccine constructs can induce Ag‐specific immune responses which provide effective protection from mucosal infections. In particular, it has been shown that adjuvant‐based mucosal vaccine preparations are relatively easy to construct by simply mixing the adjuvant with the bacterial Ag, and the resulting vaccine can elicit protective immunity. We have studied DNA‐based nasal adjuvants targeting mucosal dendritic cells (DCs) in order to induce Ag‐specific mucosal and systemic immune responses that provide essential protection against microbial pathogens which invade our mucosal surfaces. In this review, we initially introduce a plasmid encoding the cDNA of Flt3 ligand (pFL), a molecule which is a growth factor for DCs as an effective adjuvant for mucosal immunity to pneumococcal infections. Next, we discuss the potential of adding unmethylated CpG oligodeoxynucleotide together with pFL together with a pneumococcal Ag for protection from pneumococcal infections. To do this, we have used pneumococcal surface protein A as vaccine for the restoration of mucosal immunity in aging. Further, we have also used our nasal pFL adjuvant system with phosphorylcholine‐keyhole limpet hemocyanin (PC‐KLH) in pneumococcal vaccine development, to successfully indu...
Source: Microbiology and Immunology - Category: Microbiology Authors: Tags: Review Source Type: research