Absence of suitable mucosal adjuvants for humans prompted us to consider alternative vaccine designs for mucosal immunization. Because adenovirus is adept in binding to the respiratory epithelium, we tested the adenovirus 2 fiber protein (Ad2F) as a potential vaccine-targeting molecule to mediate vaccine uptake. The vaccine component (the host cell-binding domain to botulinum toxin (BoNT) serotype A) was genetically fused to Ad2F to enable epithelial binding. The binding domain for BoNT was selected because it lies within the immunodominant H chain as a β-trefoil (Hcβtre) structure; we hypothesize that induced neutralizing Abs should be protective. Mice were nasally immunized with the Hcβtre or Hcβtre-Ad2F, with or without cholera toxin (CT). Without CT, mice immunized with Hcβtre produced weak secretory IgA (sIgA) and plasma IgG Ab response. Hcβtre-Ad2F-immunized mice produced a sIgA response equivalent to mice coimmunized with CT. With CT, Hcβtre-Ad2F-immunized mice showed a more rapid onset of sIgA and plasma IgG Ab responses that were supported by a mixed Th1/Th2 cells, as opposed to mostly Th2 cells by Hcβtre-dosed mice. Mice immunized with adjuvanted Hcβtre-Ad2F or Hcβtre were protected against lethal BoNT serotype A challenge. Using a mouse neutralization assay, fecal Abs from Hcβtre-Ad2F or Hcβtre plus CT-dosed mice could confer protection. Parenteral immunization showed that the inclusion of Ad2F enhances anti-Hcβtre Ab titers even in the absence of adjuvant. This study shows that the Hcβtre structure can confer protective immunity and that use of Hcβtre-Ad2F gives more rapid and sustained mucosal and plasma Ab responses.

No abstract

No abstract

Flagella are cell surface appendages involved in a number of bacterial behaviors, such as motility, biofilm formation, and chemotaxis. Despite these important functions, flagella can pose a liability to a bacterium when serving as potent immunogens resulting in the stimulation of the innate and adaptive immune systems. Previous work showing appendage overexpression, referred to as attenuating gene expression (AGE), was found to enfeeble wild-type Salmonella. Thus, this approach was adapted to discern whether flagella overexpression could induce similar attenuation. To test its feasibility, flagellar filament subunit FliC and flagellar regulon master regulator FlhDC were overexpressed in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium wild-type strain H71. The results show that the expression of either FliC or FlhDC alone, and co-expression of the two, significantly attenuates Salmonella. The flagellated bacilli were unable to replicate within macrophages and thus were not lethal to mice. In-depth investigation suggests that flagellum-mediated AGE was due to the disruptive effects of flagella on the bacterial membrane, resulting in heightened susceptibilities to hydrogen peroxide and bile. Furthermore, flagellum-attenuated Salmonella elicited elevated immune responses to Salmonella presumably via FliC’s adjuvant effect and conferred robust protection against wild-type Salmonella challenge.

Although acquired bone marrow failure (BMF) is considered a T cell-mediated autoimmune disease, few studies have considered contributing roles of innate immune deviations following otherwise innocuous infections as a cause underlying the immune defects that lead to BMF. Type-I-IFN signaling plays an important role in protecting hematopoiesis during systemic stress responses to the opportunistic fungal pathogen Pneumocystis. During Pneumocystis lung infection, mice deficient in both lymphocytes and type-I-IFN-receptor (IFrag−/−) develop rapidly progressing BMF associated with accelerated hematopoietic cell apoptosis. However, the communication pathway eliciting the induction of BMF in response to this strictly pulmonary infection has been unclear. We developed a conditional-null allele of Ifnar1 and used tissue-specific induction of the IFrag−/− state and found that, following Pneumocystis lung infection, type-I-IFNs act not only in the lung to prevent systemic immune deviations, but also within the progenitor compartment of the BM to protect hematopoiesis. In addition, transfer of sterile-filtered serum from Pneumocystis-infected mice as well as intra-peritoneal injection of Pneumocystis into uninfected IFrag−/− mice induced BMF. Although specific cytokine deviations contribute to induction of BMF, immune-suppressive treatment of infected IFrag−/− mice ameliorated its progression but did not prevent loss of hematopoietic progenitor functions. This suggested that additional, non-cytokine factors also target and impair progenitor functions; and interestingly, fungal β-glucans were also detected in serum. In conclusion, our data demonstrates that type-1-IFN signaling protects hematopoiesis within the BM compartment from the damaging effects of pro-inflammatory cytokines elicited by Pneumocystis in the lung and possibly at extra-pulmonary sites via circulating fungal components.