Immuno-stimulation by a ribosomal vaccine associated with a bacterial cell wall adjuvant in humans

Abstract

We have studied a new vaccine of ribosomal nature associated with glycoprotein cell walls from Klebsiella pneumoniae which served as an immunoadjuvant. This vaccine was administered by the aerosol route to working men free of any important disease, especially of respiratory disease. A total of 104 men working for the Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique, all volunteers, were randomly placed into two groups. During the first period, 51 patients (group I) were vaccinated three times a week during 5 weeks, and the second group was used as control. During the second period, which started on day 225, the control group received the vaccine, and the first group was revaccinated. Results of this experience show a significant difference in the immunity of the two groups. The specific antibodies increased with vaccination as illustrated by chi-square test (Yates correction), which corresponds to an independent probability equal to 0 (P = 0.5 x 10-4).

Bacterial crude extracts or ribosomes are recognized similarly by peripheral and mucosal B cells

“…In France, a preparation containing ribosomes from four common microorganisms of the upper respiratory tract ( K. pneumoniae, S. pneumoniae, S. pyogenes and H. influenzae) has been used for over 10 years in the prevention of recurrent infectious episodes in children [10,11]. This long period of use has confirmed all previous observations indicating the innocuity and efficacy of ribosomal preparations, which seem to be good candidates for safe and efficient vaccines.…”

“…Spontaneous reactivity could be expected in this experiment from previous observations in different systems [8,9,[12][13][14], but we also wanted to test the effect of an oral challenge with ribosomal fractions. Such challenges have been shown to induce clinical protection [10,11] and increased numbers of whole antigen-specific cells in lymphoid organs as well as in the peripheral blood [12][13][14]. It has, however, not been investigated whether the triggered cells react similarly towards both types of preparations or show an even higher reactivity towards ribosomes.…”

Bacterial Lysates and Ribosomes as Inducers of Specific Immune Responses: a Comparative Study

“…An original preparation, composed of bacterial ribosomes from four common pathogens has been used in France and several other European countries for many years. This preparation, constituted with a proteoglycan of Klebsiella pueunwniae as adjuvant, has proven its clinical efficacy reducing the number of recurrent infections ofthe upper respiratory tract [7], The demonstration of elevated titres of serum antibodies in the patients, specific for the bacterial strains used in the extraction of ribosomes supports this observation [8]. Moreover, it was shown that the numbers of plasma-cells containing such specific antibodies increased in the tonsils after oral treatment with this compound [9].…”

Monocyte cytokine secretion induced by chemically-defined derivatives ofKlebsiella pneumoniae

“…Haemophilus infiuenzae. Streptococcus pneumoniae and S, pyogenes has been in clinical use for many years for treatment of respiratory tract infections [8]. Subsequently, several derivatives of Kp-MPG were prepared and characterized.…”