Gerard Zurawski, Anna Martirosyan, Sandy Zurawski, Sangkon Oh, Jean-Pierre Gorvel, Patrick Lecine, Eynav Klechevsky, Jacques Banchereau, Lee Leserman, Ignacio Moriyón, Alexandre Muller, Hélène Dutartre, Camino Pérez-Gutiérrez, Marielle Mello, Yves Levy, Edgardo Moreno, Romain Banchereau, Melissa Dullaers, Suzana P. Salcedo, Centre d'Immunologie de Marseille - Luminy (CIML), Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Oncogenèse rétrovirale – Retroviral Oncogenesis (OR), Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie (CIRI), École normale supérieure de Lyon (ENS de Lyon)-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne (UJM)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École normale supérieure de Lyon (ENS de Lyon)-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne (UJM)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), BIOASTER Microbiology Technology Institute [Lyon], Physiopathologie de l'Endothelium, Vascular research center of Marseille (VRCM), Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Institut Mondor de Recherche Biomédicale (IMRB), Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-IFR10-Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12 (UPEC UP12), Développement de nouveaux vaccins pour le traitement de maladies virales chroniques, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Universidad Nacional, Heredia (UNA), Escuela de Medicina Veterinaria, University of Navarra, Spain, Department of Microbiology, Baylor Institute for Immunology Research (BIIR), Baylor College of Medecine, Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie - UMR (CIRI), École normale supérieure - Lyon (ENS Lyon)-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École normale supérieure - Lyon (ENS Lyon)-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), and Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Bacterial cyclic glucans are glucose polymers that concentrate within the periplasm of alpha-proteobacteria. These molecules are necessary to maintain the homeostasis of the cell envelope by contributing to the osmolarity of Gram negative bacteria. Here, we demonstrate that Brucella β 1,2 cyclic glucans are potent activators of human and mouse dendritic cells. Dendritic cells activation by Brucella β 1,2 cyclic glucans requires TLR4, MyD88 and TRIF, but not CD14. The Brucella cyclic glucans showed neither toxicity nor immunogenicity compared to LPS and triggered antigen-specific CD8+ T cell responses in vivo. These cyclic glucans also enhanced antigen-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses including cross-presentation by different human DC subsets. Brucella β 1,2 cyclic glucans increased the memory CD4+ T cell responses of blood mononuclear cells exposed to recombinant fusion proteins composed of anti-CD40 antibody and antigens from both hepatitis C virus and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Thus cyclic glucans represent a new class of adjuvants, which might contribute to the development of effective antimicrobial therapies., Author Summary Vaccination is one of the key strategies to fight against infectious diseases though numerous diseases remain without appropriate vaccines. The challenge is to generate potent vaccines capable of inducing long-lasting immunity in humans. Successful vaccines include adjuvants that enhance and appropriately skew the immune response to given antigens. The development of new adjuvants for human vaccines has become an expanding field of research. Here we show that bacterial cyclic β-glucans can be used to enhance cellular immunity by activation of dendritic cells, from both mice and humans. In particular, Cyclic-β glucans enhance the in vitro memory CD4+ T cell responses of patients suffering from hepatitis C and tuberculosis. Thus cyclic-β glucans are new adjuvants, which might be used in vaccines.