Inflammatory cytokines play an important role in human immune responses to malarial disease. However, the role of these mediators in disease pathogenesis, and the relationship between host protection and injury remains unclear. A total of 248 cases of severe Plasmodium falciparum malaria among children aged 3 months to 14 years residing in Bandiagara, Mali, were matched to cases of uncomplicated malaria and healthy controls. Using modified World Health Organization criteria for defining severe malaria, we identified 100 cases of cerebral malaria (coma, seizure, and obtundation), 17 cases of severe anemia (hemoglobin, <5 g/dl), 18 cases combined cerebral malaria with severe anemia, and 92 cases with hyperparasitemia (asexual trophozoites, >500,000/mm3). Significantly elevated levels (given as geometric mean concentrations in picograms/milliliter) of interleukin-6 (IL-6; 485.2 versus 54.1; P = <0.001), IL-10 (1,099.3 versus 14.1; P = <0.001), tumor necrosis factor alpha (10.1 versus 7.7; P = <0.001), and IL-12(p70) (48.9 versus 31.3; P = 0.004) in serum were found in severe cases versus healthy controls. Significantly elevated levels of IL-6 (485.2 versus 141.0; P = <0.001) and IL-10 (1,099.3 versus 133.9; P = <0.001) were seen in severe malaria cases versus uncomplicated malaria controls. Cerebral malaria was associated with significantly elevated levels of IL-6 (754.5 versus 311.4; P = <0.001) and IL-10 (1,405.6 versus 868.6; P = 0.006) compared to severe malaria cases without cerebral manifestations. Conversely, lower levels of IL-6 (199.2 versus 487.6; P = 0.03) and IL-10 (391.1 versus 1,160.9; P = 0.002) were noted in children with severe anemia compared to severe malaria cases with hemoglobin at >5 g/dl. Hyperparasitemia was associated with significantly lower levels of IL-6 (336.6 versus 602.1; P = 0.002). These results illustrate the complex relationships between inflammatory cytokines and disease in P. falciparum malaria.

More than 50 years of research has yielded numerous Shigella vaccine candidates that have exemplified both the promise of vaccine-induced prevention of shigellosis and the impediments to developing a safe and effective vaccine for widespread use, a goal that has yet to be attained. This Review discusses the most advanced strategies for Shigella vaccine development, the immune responses that are elicited following disease or vaccination, the factors that have accelerated or impeded Shigella vaccine development and our ideas for the way forward.At the end of the 19th century, as epidemics of bacillary dysentery accompanied by high mortality spread across Japan, the young microbiologist Kiyoshi Shiga examined dysenteric stools and isolated a bacterium that was agglutinated by serum from convalescent patients but not from patients with acute disease [1][2][3] (FIG. 1). That bacterium -known today as Shigella dysenteriae 1 -was the first identified member of the genus Shigella. Four Correspondence to M.L. mlevine@medicine.umaryland.edu. Competing interests statement:The authors declare no competing financial interests. Links NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptShigella species (or groups) are now recognized: S. dysenteriae (group A), which has 15 serotypes; Shigella flexneri (group B), which has 14 classical serotypes and subserotypes; Shigella boydii (group C), which has 20 serotypes; and Shigella sonnei (group D), which has single serotype 4 (TABLE 1).There has been resurgent interest in Shigella as a human pathogen, driven by the availability of more precise data on the disease burden 5-8 , emerging antibiotic resistance 9,10 and the fact that mucosally invasive Shigella, which often cause dysentery (gross blood in diarrhoeal stools), are less amenable to the salutary effects of oral rehydration than non-invasive pathogens that cause watery diarrhoea, such as Vibrio cholerae and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli. The target populations for the use of Shigella vaccines include infants and young children in developing countries (in which the peak incidence occurs at 12-47 months of age and the S. flexneri serotypes predominate) 5-7 .S. dysenteriae 1, which produces Shiga toxin and typically carries R factors that encode resistance to multiple antibodies, waxes and wanes as a cause of epidemic severe disease in the world's least developed countries [11][12][13][14] Few bacterial pathogens have had their pathogenesis or interactions with mammalian tissues elucidated so precisely at the cellular and subcellular levels as Shigella spp. 20,21 Nevertheless, progress in attaining safe and effective Shigella vaccines has faltered. Herein, we review recent and old clinical trials that have evaluated the safety, immunogenicity and efficacy of candidate Shigella vaccines. We relate the bassis for the most popular strategies (BOX 2), the relevance of the different immune responses measured, the factors that have favoured or impeded vaccine development and, most importantly, the less...

Oral delivery of escalating-dose Salmonella Typhi (Quailes strain) using sodium bicarbonate buffer solution in an outpatient, ambulant-design human infection study demonstrates safety, requires a lower challenge inoculum than that used in historical studies, and offers a unique insight into host–pathogen interactions.

The allelic and haplotypic diversity of the HLA-A, HLA-B, and HLA-C loci was investigated in 852 subjects from five sub-Saharan populations from Kenya (Nandi and Luo), Mali (Dogon), Uganda, and Zambia. Distributions of genotypes at all loci and in all populations fit Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium expectations. There was not a single allele predominant at any of the loci in these populations, with the exception of A*3002 [allele frequency (AF) = 0.233] in Zambians and Cw*1601 (AF = 0.283) in Malians. This distribution was consistent with balancing selection for all class I loci in all populations, which was evidenced by the homozygosity F statistic that was less than that expected under neutrality. Only in the A locus in Zambians and the C locus in Malians, the AF distribution was very close to neutrality expectations. There were six instances in which there were significant deviations of allele distributions from neutrality in the direction of balancing selection. All allelic lineages from each of the class I loci were found in all the African populations. Several alleles of these loci have intermediate frequencies (AF = 0.020-0.150) and seem to appear only in the African populations. Most of these alleles are widely distributed in the African continent and their origin may predate the separation of linguistic groups. In contrast to native American and other populations, the African populations do not seem to show extensive allelic diversification within lineages, with the exception of the groups of alleles A*02, A*30, B*57, and B*58. The alleles of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-B are in strong linkage disequilibrium (LD) with alleles of the C locus, and the sets of B/C haplotypes are found in several populations. The associations between A alleles with C-blocks are weaker, and only a few A/B/C haplotypes (A*0201-B*4501-Cw*1601; A*2301-B*1503-Cw*0202; A*7401-B* 1503-Cw*0202; A*2902-B*4201-Cw*1701; A*3001-B*4201-Cw*1701; and A*3601-B*5301-Cw*0401) are found in multiple populations with intermediate frequencies [haplotype frequency (HF) = 0.010-0.100]. The strength of the LD associations between alleles of HLA-A and HLA-B loci and those of HLA-B and HLA-C loci was on average of the same or higher magnitude as those observed in other non-African populations for the same pairs of loci. Comparison of the genetic distances measured by the distribution of alleles at the HLA class I loci in the sub-Saharan populations included in this and other studies indicate that the Luo population from western Kenya has the closest distance with virtually all sub-Saharan population so far studied for HLA-A, a finding consistent with the putative origin of modern humans in East Africa. In all African populations, the genetic distances between each other are greater than those observed between European populations. The remarkable current allelic and haplotypic diversity in the HLA system as well as their variable distribution in different sub-Saharan populations is probably the result of evolutionary forces and environments that have acte...

Successful vaccination of the elderly against important infectious pathogens which cause high morbidity and mortality represents a growing public health priority. Building upon the theme of aging and immunosenescence, we review mechanisms of human immunosenescence and the immune response to currently-licensed vaccines. We discuss the difficulties in identifying the risk factors that, in addition to aging, cause immunosenescence and address the relative paucity of vaccine studies in the elderly. We conclude that vaccine responses are blunted in the elderly when compared to that of healthy young adults. However, it is also clear that our understanding of the mechanisms underlying immunosenescence is limited and much remains to be learned in order to improve the effectiveness of next generation vaccines.

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. typhi) strain Ty21a remains the only licensed attenuated typhoid vaccine. Despite years of research, the identity of the protective immunological mechanisms elicited by immunization with the Ty21a typhoid vaccine remains elusive. The present study was designed to characterize effector T cell responses in volunteers immunized with S. typhi strain Ty21a typhoid vaccine. We determined whether immunization with Ty21a induced specific CTL able to lyse S. typhi-infected cells and secrete IFN-γ, a key effector molecule against intracellular pathogens. We measured the functional activity of these CTL by a 51Cr-release assay using 8-day restimulated PBMC from Ty21a vaccinees as effector cells and S. Typhi-infected autologous PHA-activated PBMC as target cells. Most vaccinees exhibited consistently increased CD8-mediated lysis of targets by postimmunization PBMC when compared with preimmunization levels. We also developed an IFN-γ ELISPOT assay to quantify the frequency of IFN-γ spot-forming cells (SFC) in PBMC from Ty21a vaccinees using an ex vivo system. Significant increases in the frequency of IFN-γ SFC following immunization (mean ± SD, 393 ± 172; range 185–548 SFC/106 PBMC; p = 0.010), as compared with preimmunization levels, were observed. IFN-γ was secreted predominantly by CD8+ T cells. A strong correlation was recorded between the cytolytic activity of CTL lines and the frequency of IFN-γ SFC (r2 = 0.910, p &lt; 0.001). In conclusion, this work constitutes the first evidence that immunization of volunteers with Ty21a elicits specific CD8+ CTL and provides an estimate of the frequency of CD8+ IFN-γ-secreting cells induced by vaccination.

Our previous studies in volunteers immunized with Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi) have suggested an important role for CD8+ T cells in host defense. In this study we describe a novel subset of nonclassical human HLA-E-restricted S. Typhi-specific CD8+ T cells derived from PBMC of Ty21a typhoid vaccinees. CD3+CD8+CD4−CD56− T cells effectively killed S. Typhi-infected targets regardless of whether they share classical HLA class I molecules with them, by a FAS-independent, granule-dependent mechanism, as evidenced by induction of granzyme B release and the blocking effects of concanamycin and strontium ions. The expression of HLA-E Ags, but not CD1-a, -b, or -c, on the membrane of S. Typhi-infected targets rendered them susceptible to lysis. Moreover, anti-HLA-E Abs partially blocked these responses. We also demonstrated that presentation of S. Typhi Ags via HLA-E could stimulate IFN-γ production. Increases in the net frequency of IFN-γ spot-forming cells were observed in the presence of targets coated with peptides that contain S. Typhi GroEL HLA-E binding motifs. These results demonstrate that HLA-E binds nonamer peptides derived from bacterial proteins and trigger CD8+-mediated lysis and IFN-γ production when exposed to infected targets, raising the possibility that this novel effector mechanism might contribute to host defense against intracellular bacterial infections.

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