Image: Salmonella typhimurium – via: Volker Brinkmann, Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin, Germany.
Scientists in Trinity College Dublin and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, are making through-roads with their most recent discoveries. The scientists, who are collaborating with one another to find new routes for immune cells to take on gut infections have discovered new routes for cellular traffic – which could have an impact on vaccine design for infections like HIV and E.Coli.
Dr. Ed Lavelle, of TCD, and Dr. Saurabh Mehandru of MSSM published their findings in The Journal of Experimental Medicine recently, and demonstrated how their is evidence relating cellular movement between the gastrointestinal tract and the lungs, something which has proven to be important in the body’s fight against infectious agents.
Dr. Lavelle, who is an Associate Professor in Immunology in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology in Trinity College Dublin said: “These are very exciting findings which may provide opportunities to develop novel vaccine strategies for gastrointestinal infections. While oral vaccination can be effective, the option of vaccination in the respiratory tract could be invaluable in cases where the oral route is not optimal.”
Dr. Darren Ruane, the lead author of the paper said: “This study reveals taht pathways of cellular recruitment to the gut are much more diverse than previously appreciated. There appears to be considerable, DC-mediated traffic of lymphocytes between distinct mucosal compartments thereby confirming the classical theory of a common mucosal immunological system. This theory predicts that the immune system at the various mucosal surfaces including the lung, digestive and reproductive tracts are connected, offering the potential to vaccinate at one site yet induce immunity at the other mucosal sites. This mucosal cross talk has the potential to open up the possibilities for developing new types of vaccines for infections affecting the gut.”
The collaborative research group, has been looking at ways to nasally administere immunisation, which has been successful, particularly when looking at a strain of Salmonella.
Read more here: http://jem.rupress.org/content/210/9/1871.abstract
