A novel mucosal lipopeptide based vaccine against mycobacteria

International Conference and Exhibition on Lung Disorders & Therapeutics

July 13-15, 2015 Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Nancy Gupta, Dennis Y Kunimoto, Babita Agrawal and Rakesh Kumar

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Pulm Respir Med

Abstract :

Tuberculosis (TB) is a major global health threat to humans, with 9.3 million new cases and 2 million deaths annually from Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. BCG is the only available vaccine which is only 0-80% effective. Development of vaccine against mycobacteria is challenging and several experimental vaccine candidates did not demonstrate sufficient efficacy in clinical trials. Early secreted antigenic target 6-kDa (ESAT-6) has been suggested to be an important antigen for protective immunity and BCG lacks ESAT-6. In this study, we aimed to examine the immune responses generated upon immunization with lipopeptides of ESAT-6 and their protective efficacy in a mouse modal of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Our results demonstrated that intranasal immunization with lipopeptides of ESAT-6 antigen is capable of stimulating potent and multifunctional antigen specific T-cell responses in spleen and lead to substantial infiltration of immune cells in the Bronchio Alveolar Lavage (BAL). Subcutaneous immunization also induced immune responses in spleen comparable to that obtained from intranasal route but failed to recruit immune cells in the BAL. Pre-immunization of mice with lipopeptides of ESAT-6intranasallyled to a significant reduction in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (H37Ra) loads in lungs, liver and spleen compared to subcutaneous vaccination. Our study revealed the potential of lipidated peptides of ESAT-6 antigen as a promising mucosal vaccine against tuberculosis.

Biography :

Nancy Gupta completed her PhD and is working in Laboratory Medicine and Pathology under Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Dr. Dennis Kunimoto, University of Alberta Edmonton, Canada.