title: Persistence of mucosal and systemic immune responses following sublingual immunization.
abstract: The development of mucosal vaccines for prevention of infectious diseases caused by pathogens entering through the mucosal surfaces is an important and challenging objective. To this purpose, we evaluated the efficacy and durability of immune response induced by sublingual immunization with tetanus toxoid (TT) as an antigen in the presence of mucosal adjuvants, such as E. coli Heat-Labile enterotoxin (LT) or the mutant of LT lacking ADP ribosyltransferase activity (LTK63). Both serum anti-TT IgG and mucosal anti-TT IgA antibodies reached a peak after four immunizations and decreased over time, maintaining detectable titers up to 4 months after the last immunization. Similarly, antigen-specific antibody secreting cells in bone marrow and TT-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in draining lymph nodes and spleen were present up to 4 months from the last immunization. Overall, LT-treated mice showed significantly higher responses compared to LTK63 immunized mice. The efficacy and persistence of the immune response induced by sublingual immunization with different adjuvants strongly suggest that this route represents an appealing and promising alternative to the other mucosal routes of vaccine delivery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious, Parasitic and Immune-mediated Diseases, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy. donatella.negri@iss.it
authors.forename: Donatella R M
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Negri
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Riccomi
authors.forename: Dora
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pinto
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vendetti
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rossi
authors.forename: Rosella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cicconi
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ruggiero
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Del Giudice
authors.forename: Maria Teresa
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: De Magistris
mesh_terms: D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology; D000286:Administration, Sublingual; D000818:Animals; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood; D000917:Antibody Formation; D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000276:immunology*; D001428:Bacterial Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000276:immunology; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D004768:Enterotoxins / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000276:immunology*; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D018928:Immunity, Mucosal; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D013154:Spleen / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology; D013745:Tetanus Toxoid / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D001428:Bacterial Vaccines; D004768:Enterotoxins; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D013745:Tetanus Toxoid; C027538:heat-labile enterotoxin, E coli