The selection of any specific immunization route is critical when defining future vaccine strategies against a genital infection like Chlamydia trachomatis (C.t.). An optimal Chlamydia vaccine needs to elicit mucosal immunity comprising both neutralizing IgA/IgG antibodies and strong Th1/Th17 responses. A strategic tool to modulate this immune profile and mucosal localization of vaccine respons...

BACKGROUND In a quest for a needle-free vaccine administration strategy, we evaluated the ocular conjunctiva as an alternative mucosal immunization route by profiling and comparing the local and systemic immune responses to the subcutaneous or conjunctival administration of tetanus toxoid (TTd), a model antigen. MATERIALS AND METHODS BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice were immunized either subcutaneousl...

cancer cell-stromal cell interaction plays a crucial role in the growth and invasion of tumor cells of various organs. it has been recently suggested that adipocytes and preadipocytes, two specific types of stromal cells, affect the biological behavior of variety of breast cancer cell lines. in spite of few investigations, there is a controversy in the literatures about the effects of adipocyte...

Vaccines against S. aureus bovine mastitis are scarce and show limited protection only. All currently available vaccines are applied via the parenteral (usually intramuscular) route. It is unknown, however, whether this route is the most suitable to specifically increase intramammary immunity to combat S. aureus at the site of infection. Hence, in the present study, immunization via mucosal (in...

Tetanus toxin fragment C (TTFC) was expressed on the surface of the vaccine vector Streptococcus gordonii, a Gram-positive commensal bacterium of the human oral cavity. The immunogenicity of recombinant S. gordonii expressing TTFC was assayed in mice immunized by the parenteral and mucosal routes. High serum TTFC-specific IgG responses were induced in both BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice immunized subc...

Tuberculosis (TB) is the most deadly infectious disease in existence, and the only available vaccine, Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), is almost a century old and poorly protective. The immunological complexity of TB, coupled with rising resistance to antimicrobial therapies, necessitates a pipeline of diverse novel vaccines. Here, we show that Bacillus subtilis spores can be coated with a fusio...

Extensive studies of the mixed lymphocyte interaction (MLI) 1 have shown it to be an immunologically specific proliferative reaction in which a large proportion of immunologically competent, predominately thymus-derived, circulating lymphocytes from nonimmunized donors recognize and respond to the presence of major histocompatibility (H) isoantigens in culture (1-7). Prior immunization of the c...