The inactivated EV71 vaccine elicited EV71-specific immune responses and protection against EV71-associated hand, foot, and mouth disease. (Funded by the National Basic Research Program and others; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01569581.).
Enterovirus 71 (EV71), a major causative agent of hand-foot-and-mouth disease (HFMD), causes outbreaks among children in the Asia-Pacific region. A vaccine is urgently needed. Based on successful pre-clinical work, phase I and II clinical trials of an inactivated EV71 vaccine, which included the participants of 288 and 660 respectively, have been conducted. In the present study, the immune response and the correlated modulation of gene expression in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of 30 infants (6 to 11 months) immunized with this vaccine or placebo and consented to join this study in the phase II clinical trial were analyzed. The results showed significantly greater neutralizing antibody and specific T cell responses in vaccine group after two inoculations on days 0 and 28. Additionally, more than 600 functional genes that were up- or down-regulated in PBMCs were identified by the microarray assay, and these genes included 68 genes associated with the immune response in vaccine group. These results emphasize the gene expression profile of the immune system in response to an inactivated EV71 vaccine in humans and confirmed that such an immune response was generated as the result of the positive mobilization of the immune system. Furthermore, the immune response was not accompanied by the development of a remarkable inflammatory response.
Clinical Trial Registration: NCT01391494 and NCT01512706.
BackgroundTo investigate the long-term effects on immunity of an inactivated enterovirus 71 (EV71) vaccine and its protective efficacy.MethodsA sub-cohort of 1,100 volunteers from Guangxi Province in China was eligible for enrolment and randomly administered either the EV71 vaccine or a placebo on days 0 and 28 in a phase III clinical trial and then observed for the following 2 years with approval by an independent ethics committee of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. Serum samples from the 350 participants who provided a full series of blood samples (at all the sampling points) within the 2-year period were collected. Vaccine-induced immune effects, including the neutralizing antibody titres and cross-protection against different genotypes of EV71, were examined. This study also evaluated the protective efficacy of this vaccine based upon clinical diagnosis.ResultsThis sub-cohort showed a >60 % drop-out rate over 2 years. The seroconversion rates among the 161 immunized subjects remained >95 % at the end of study. The geometric mean titres of neutralizing antibodies (anti-genotype C4) 360 days after vaccination in 350 subjects were 81.0 (subjects aged 6–11 months), 98.4 (12–23 months), 95.0 (24–35 months), and 81.8 (36–71 months). These titres subsequently increased to 423.1, 659.0, 545.0, and 321.9, respectively, at 540 days post-immunization (d.p.i.), and similar levels were maintained at 720 d.p.i. Higher IFN-γ/IL-4-specific responses to the C4 genotype of EV71 and cross-neutralization reactivity against major EV71 genotype strains were observed in the vaccine group compared to those in the placebo group. Five EV71-infected subjects were observed in the placebo-treated control group and none in the vaccine-immunized group in per-protocol analysis.ConclusionThese results are consistent with the induction of dynamic immune responses and protective efficacy of the vaccine against most circulating EV71 strains.Trial registration numberClinicaltrials.gov, NCT01569581, Trial registration date: March 2012Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12916-015-0448-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
The growth of two enterotoxin-positive (ent+) and two enterotoxin-negative (ent−) strains of Clostridium perfringens were examined in two laboratory media, fluid thioglycollate and fluid thioglycollate with beef, and in autoclaved ground beef stored at 37, 41, 43, 46, and 48°C. There was no association between enterotoxigenicity and optimum growth temperature, which varied depending on strain and medium. Experimentally obtained values for generation times at 43°C were as low as 8.7 and 6.3 min in thioglycollate both for ent+ and ent- strains respectively. In autoclaved ground beef the shortest generation times, 7.1 min and 9.2 min, were obtained at 41 and 46°C for two ent+ strains. For ent− strains in autoclaved ground beef a generation time of 6.6 min was observed at 43°C. Temperature optima obtained experimentally were the same as those obtained by the Gompertz model. The rapid growth of the ent+ strains between 41 and 46°C underlines previous recommendations for proper holding and cooling of protein foods such as meat and poultry known to support the growth of this organism.
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