1. Ligation of Dectin-2 with a novel microbial ligand promotes adjuvant activity for vaccination
- Author
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Scott J. Fites, Marcel Wüthrich, Huafeng Wang, T. Tristan Brandhorst, Bruce S. Klein, Kevin Galles, Richard M. Merkhofer, Robert Zarnowski, and Taek-Jin Lee
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Cellular immunity ,Physiology ,medicine.medical_treatment ,Yeast and Fungal Models ,Ligands ,Pathology and Laboratory Medicine ,Graduates ,Mass Spectrometry ,Mice ,White Blood Cells ,Immunologic Adjuvants ,0302 clinical medicine ,Animal Cells ,Immune Physiology ,Medicine and Health Sciences ,Public and Occupational Health ,lcsh:QH301-705.5 ,Candida ,Fungal Pathogens ,Fungal protein ,Vaccines ,Innate Immune System ,biology ,Effector ,T Cells ,Vaccination and Immunization ,3. Good health ,Vaccination ,Infectious Diseases ,Experimental Organism Systems ,Medical Microbiology ,Blastomyces ,Cytokines ,Educational Status ,Antibody ,Cellular Types ,Pathogens ,Adjuvant ,Research Article ,lcsh:Immunologic diseases. Allergy ,Infectious Disease Control ,Immune Cells ,Immunology ,Mycology ,Research and Analysis Methods ,Alumni ,Microbiology ,Mycobacterium tuberculosis ,Fungal Proteins ,03 medical and health sciences ,Adjuvants, Immunologic ,Virology ,Genetics ,medicine ,Animals ,Humans ,Candida Albicans ,Lectins, C-Type ,Molecular Biology ,Microbial Pathogens ,Fungal vaccine ,Blood Cells ,Organisms ,Fungi ,Biology and Life Sciences ,Cell Biology ,Molecular Development ,biology.organism_classification ,Yeast ,Mice, Inbred C57BL ,030104 developmental biology ,lcsh:Biology (General) ,Mycoses ,Immune System ,People and Places ,biology.protein ,Leukocytes, Mononuclear ,Parasitology ,Population Groupings ,Preventive Medicine ,Fungal Vaccines ,lcsh:RC581-607 ,030215 immunology ,Developmental Biology - Abstract
The development of vaccines against fungi and other intracellular microbes is impeded in part by a lack of suitable adjuvants. While most current vaccines against infectious diseases preferentially induce production of antibodies, cellular immunity is essential for the resolution of fungal infections. Microbes such as fungi and Mycobacterium tuberculosis require Th17 and Th1 cells for resistance, and engage the C-type lectin receptors including Dectin-2. Herein, we discovered a novel Dectin-2 ligand, the glycoprotein Blastomyces Eng2 (Bl-Eng2). Bl-Eng2 triggers robust signaling in Dectin-2 reporter cells and induces IL-6 in human PBMC and BMDC from wild type but not Dectin-2-/- and Card9-/- mice. The addition of Bl-Eng2 to a pan-fungal subunit vaccine primed large numbers of Ag-specific Th17 and Th1 cells, augmented activation and killing of fungi by myeloid effector cells, and protected mice from lethal fungal challenge, revealing Bl-Eng2’s potency as a vaccine adjuvant. Thus, ligation of Dectin-2 by Bl-Eng-2 could be harnessed as a novel adjuvant strategy to protect against infectious diseases requiring cellular immunity., Author summary Despite several million new systemic fungal infections annually worldwide, there are no commercial vaccines available. The lack of appropriate adjuvants is one major impediment to developing safe and effective vaccines against infections with fungal pathogens. Current vaccines against infectious diseases preferentially induce protective antibodies, driven by adjuvants such as alum. While clonally-derived and adoptively transferred monoclonal antibodies may confer protection against fungi, the contribution of antibody to host defense is likely to be limited. Animal studies and clinical observations implicate cellular immunity as an essential component of the resolution of fungal infections. We found a promising adjuvant that augments cell mediated immune responses and vaccine-induced protection against fungal infection. We anticipate that our discovery will be a useful adjuvant for vaccination with non-replicating and safe subunit vaccines against many microbial pathogens that require protective cell mediated immune responses.
- Published
- 2017