The effect of different adjuvants on immune parameters and protection following vaccination of sheep with a larval-specific antigen of the gastrointestinal nematode, Haemonchus contortus

David Piedrafita; Sarah Preston; Joanna Kemp; Michael de Veer; Jayne Sherrard; Troy Kraska; Martin Elhay; Els Meeusen

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0078357

The effect of different adjuvants on immune parameters and protection following vaccination of sheep with a larval-specific antigen of the gastrointestinal nematode, Haemonchus contortus

PLoS One. 2013 Oct 21;8(10):e78357. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0078357. eCollection 2013.

Authors

David Piedrafita¹, Sarah Preston, Joanna Kemp, Michael de Veer, Jayne Sherrard, Troy Kraska, Martin Elhay, Els Meeusen

Affiliation

¹ School of Biomedical Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia ; The ARC Centre of Excellence in Structural and Functional Microbial Genomics, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.

Abstract

It has recently been recognised that vaccine adjuvants play a critical role in directing the nature of a vaccine induced effector response. In the present study, several adjuvants were evaluated for their ability to protect sheep after field vaccination with the larval-specific Haemonchus contortus antigen, HcsL3. Using a suboptimal antigen dose, aluminium adjuvant was shown to reduce the cumulative faecal egg counts (cFEC) and worm burden by 23% and 25% respectively, in agreement with a previous study. The addition of Quil A to the aluminium-adjuvanted vaccine brought cFEC back to control levels. Vaccination with the adjuvant DEAE-dextran almost doubled the protection compared to the aluminium-adjuvanted vaccine resulting in 40% and 41% reduction in cFEC and worm counts compared to controls. Examination of skin responses following i.d. injection of exsheathed L3, revealed that cFEC was negatively correlated with wheal size and tissue eosinophils for the DEAE-dextran and aluminium-adjuvanted groups respectively. These studies have for the first time shown the potential of DEAE-dextran adjuvant for helminth vaccines, and discovered significant cellular correlates of vaccine-induced protection.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adjuvants, Immunologic / pharmacology
Adjuvants, Pharmaceutic / pharmacology*
Animals
Antibodies, Helminth / immunology
Antigens, Helminth / immunology*
DEAE-Dextran / pharmacology
Feces / parasitology
Gastrointestinal Diseases / drug therapy
Gastrointestinal Diseases / immunology*
Gastrointestinal Diseases / parasitology
Haemonchiasis / diet therapy
Haemonchiasis / immunology
Haemonchiasis / parasitology
Haemonchus / drug effects
Haemonchus / immunology*
Larva / drug effects
Larva / immunology*
Nematoda / drug effects
Nematoda / immunology*
Nematode Infections / drug therapy
Nematode Infections / immunology
Nematode Infections / parasitology
Parasite Egg Count / methods
Sheep / immunology*
Sheep / parasitology
Sheep Diseases / drug therapy
Sheep Diseases / immunology
Sheep Diseases / parasitology
Vaccination / methods
Vaccines / immunology

Substances

Adjuvants, Immunologic
Adjuvants, Pharmaceutic
Antibodies, Helminth
Antigens, Helminth
Vaccines
DEAE-Dextran

Grants and funding

Australian Research Council Linkage grant LP0668945 and the ARC-Centre of Excellence in Structural and Functional Microbial Genomics. The funders have no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.