9. Immunology of the gut mucosa 2 Flashcards
(73 cards)
How are most traditional vaccines administered?
- Systemically
- They are delivered via a syringe.
- Intramuscular, subcutaneous and intradermal.
How are most vaccines given?
Intramuscularly
What are live attenuated virus vaccines?
- viruses that have been cultured or engineered to be infectious but at a reduced level.
- The virus isn’t fit and can’t replicate very well.
- It triggers a robust immune response but 1 that can be easily managed.
eg Mumps vaccine
What are killed pathogen or toxin vaccines?
- These are inactivated viruses or parts of a virus toxin.
- These can’t replicate and are not infectious.
- Antigen presentation and T cell activation still occurs.
eg Diptheria vaccine
What are some new vaccine platforms?
- RNA vaccins
- Viral vector vaccines
What are most traditional vaccines not good at doing?
- They are good at developing a systemic immune response like antibodies and T cells.
- However they are not good at protecting against some of the biggest pathogens that infect mucosal surfaces.
Are there any effective HIV vaccines?
- There have been countless clinical trials.
- Most showed no efficacy.
- The RV144 trial showed 31% efficacy to prevent HIV acquisition but it couldn’t be replicated.
- It can been 40 years of research and no vaccine have been found.
Do we have a vaccine for TB?
- Yes the BCG vaccine.
- But TB still causes lots of infections and deaths.
- It is debated whether the BCG vaccine is effective.
What is the BCG vaccine?
- A live attenuated vaccine.
- Based on M. bovis.
- It is good at protecting children but has efficacy issues.
- The efficacy reduces the older the vaccine is given.
- It protects against pulmonary TB but not other types.
- It does not protect against infection but reduces disease severity.
Is there a new TB vaccine in development?
- yes
- Trialled in about 3300 people
- Out of both the test and control group only 40 people developed TB.
- 26 of these were in the placebo group.
- This shows this vaccine has about 50% efficacy in preventing TB infection.
What immune responses developed following the use of the new TB vaccine?
- A strong antibody response developed rapidly after the vaccine was given.
- Over time the response reduces but it is still elevated at 36 months.
- Protection peaked at 2 months.
- Long term data is needed to understand this further.
- T cell responses were also generated and lasted for 36 months.
- These results allowed more studies into the vaccine.
Is there an effective RSV vaccine?
- Yes
- It was difficult to make this vaccine but is has been done
What is RSV?
- Respiratory syncytial virus
- It is a common cause of severe respiratory infections
- It can be very serious in children and old people.
How do most infections enter the body?
- Through mucosal surfaces
- This makes up around 70% of infections.
- these are mucosal pathogens
What needs to be considered when designing vaccine?
Do we want a systemic or mucosal immune response
What do you need to do to generate a mucosal immune response with a vaccine?
- You need to get T and B cells to the mucosal surfaces.
- This is done by priming and homing signals from mucosal dendritic cells.
- Antigens given through muscle are less likely to cause this response.
What does systemic immunisation cause?
- Only induces systemic immunity (serum IgG and systemic T cells).
- It resolves infection once the virus has spread from a mucosal site.
- It can allows shedding from replication in a mucosal site.
- It maybe sufficient to control both if mucosal inflammation recruits systemic effectors.
What does mucosal immunisation cause?
- Mucosal and systemic immunity (Local and serum IgA, IgG and mucosal and system T cells).
- Prevents uptake of virus into mucosal tissues.
- It reduces local replication.
- Shed virus may be complexed with IgA and be non infectious.
What is an example of a successful mucosal vaccine?
The polio vaccine
What is the Polio vaccine?
- A mucosal vaccine.
- It protects against different serotypes of polio.
- It consisted of a mixture of 3 live attenuated poliovirus strains.
- Induces antibodies to protect the mucosa and prevent spread to the CNS.
What is polio?
- A virus that attacks the CNS and causes paralysis.
- It used to be a very significant cause of infection and death.
- Paralysis can cause people to lose the ability to breathe and require iron lungs.
How do iron lungs work?
- They alternate between positive and negative pressure.
- This forces the lungs to expand and contract so the patients can breathe.
Are we close to eradicating polio?
- Very close
- It is 99.99% eradicated.
- More vaccination and maintenance of vaccination is important.
How does poliovirus infect people?
- Poliovirus binds to receptors in enterocytes in the gut.
- The virus copies itself and bursts out of cells.
- It infects more epithelial cells and continues to replicate and spread.
- The virus migrates around the body and to the CNS.