Intranasal vaccine provokes strong immune response in murine model of STD.(Brief Article)

2002 JUL 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Maria G. Essig, MS, ELS, senior medical writer - Intranasal vaccines for protection against sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea provoked a stronger immune response in the female genital tract of mice than did local vaccination, according to a report from New York.

Creating an effective vaccine against infections of the female reproductive tract is challenging because of the poor immune response to genital application of antigens.

"Studies of immune responses to genital infections such as gonorrhea also support the concept that, lacking mucosal immune inductive sites, the reproductive tract is ill-equipped to mount effective immune responses," said Michael W. Russell at the State University of New York in Buffalo.

Russell examined the immunological effects of intranasal and intravaginal vaccination on vaginal fluid, saliva, and serum in mice. Two types of vaccines were tested, one containing a protein antigen linked to cholera toxin (CT) B subunit, and the other involving genetically engineered chimeric proteins with the A2/B CT subunits or type II heat-labile enterotoxin (Immunization for protection of the reproductive tract: A review, American Journal of Reproductive Immunology, 2002;47(5):265-268).

The production of vaginal and serum immunoglobulin A (IgA) and immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies was significantly greater after intranasal vaccination than after intravaginal application. The vaginal ...