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Review
. 2015 Feb;15(1):9-15.
doi: 10.4110/in.2015.15.1.9. Epub 2015 Feb 17.

A molecular mucosal adjuvant to enhance immunity against pneumococcal infection in the elderly

Yoshiko Fukuyama  1 , Yorihiko Ikeda  2 , Junichiro Ohori  2 , Gen Sugita  2 , Kazuyoshi Aso  2 , Keiko Fujihashi  2 , David E Briles  3 , Jerry R McGhee  2 , Kohtaro Fujihashi  2
Affiliations
Review

A molecular mucosal adjuvant to enhance immunity against pneumococcal infection in the elderly

Yoshiko Fukuyama et al. Immune Netw. 2015 Feb.

Abstract

Streptococcus pneumoniae (the pneumococcus) causes a major upper respiratory tract infection often leading to severe illness and death in the elderly. Thus, it is important to induce safe and effective mucosal immunity against this pathogen in order to prevent pnuemocaccal infection. However, this is a very difficult task to elicit protective mucosal IgA antibody responses in older individuals. A combind nasal adjuvant consisting of a plasmid encoding the Flt3 ligand cDNA (pFL) and CpG oligonucleotide (CpG ODN) successfully enhanced S. pneumoniae-specific mucosal immunity in aged mice. In particular, a pneumococcal surface protein A-based nasal vaccine given with pFL and CpG ODN induced complete protection from S. pneumoniae infection. These results show that nasal delivery of a combined DNA adjuvant offers an attractive potential for protection against the pneumococcus in the elderly.

Keywords: Aging; Bacterial infection; Mucosa; Vaccination.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no financial conflict of interest.

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