New approaches to understanding the immune response to vaccination and infection

Abstract

Summary The immune system is a network of specialized cell types and tissues that communicates via cytokines and direct contact, to orchestrate specific types of defensive responses. Until recently, we could only study immune responses in a piecemeal, highly focused fashion, on major components like antibodies to the pathogen. But recent advances in technology and in our understanding of the many components of the system, innate and adaptive, have made possible a broader approach, where both the multiple responding cells and cytokines in the blood are measured. This systems immunology approach to a vaccine response or an infection gives us a more holistic picture of the different parts of the immune system that are mobilized and in turn, may allow us to better understand the mechanisms of such responses, as well as to predict vaccine efficacy in different populations well in advance of efficacy studies. Here we summarize the different technologies and methods and discuss how they can inform us about the differences between diseases and vaccines, and how they can greatly accelerate vaccine development.

Antibody Fab‐Fc properties outperform titer in predictive models of SIV vaccine‐induced protection

“…Systems approaches provide the opportunity to broadly characterize immune responses and efficiently identify properties associated with protection and differences between vaccine compositions or immunization regimens (Querec et al , ; Kuri‐Cervantes et al , ). While gene expression profiles are generally at the heart of systems biology, immunology‐specific approaches have been developed to measure and leverage biological profiles (e.g., cytokines, multi‐dimensional cellular markers, metabolites) (Furman & Davis, ; Lin et al , ; Davis et al , ). In order to enable “systems serology” studies (Chung et al , ; Ackerman et al , ), we have recently developed a platform, the “Fc Array”, to comprehensively dissect antibody profiles of serum samples (Brown et al , , ).…”

Malaria — how this parasitic infection aids and abets EBV-associated Burkitt lymphomagenesis

“…The use of humanized mouse models show promise in addressing questions about human infectious diseases and cancer etiology [66,67] . Combined with descriptive natural co-infection studies of humans and computational approaches to human immunology and virology [68] , the interwoven array of immune mediators are being identified and can now be interrogated within malaria and EBV co-infection studies. This new appreciation of human immunology will lead to designing appropriate interventions to prevent malaria and/or EBV infections in infants.…”

Enhancing vaccine effectiveness with delivery technology

“…For example, continuously replicating live attenuated vaccines constantly present proteinaceous antigens that are recognized by Th cells. These Th cells trigger a humoral (B cell) response, allowing for the formation of memory B cells that can be reactivated rapidly upon re-infection without further aid of T cells [1,11,12]. …”