Human infection with Ascaris lumbricoides is associated with suppression of the interleukin-2 response to recombinant cholera toxin B subunit following vaccination with the live oral cholera vaccine CVD 103-HgR.

Abstract

To investigate the potential immunomodulatory effects of concurrent ascariasis on the cytokine response to a live oral vaccine, we measured cytokine responses to cholera toxin B subunit (CT-B) following vaccination with the live oral cholera vaccine CVD 103-HgR in Ascaris lumbricoides-infected subjects randomized in a double-blind study to receive two doses of either albendazole or placebo prior to vaccination and in a group of healthy U.S. controls. Postvaccination cytokine responses to CT-B were characterized by transient increases in the production of interleukin-2 (IL-2; P = 0.02) and gamma interferon (IFN-gamma; P = 0.001) in the three study groups combined; however, postvaccination increases in IFN-gamma were significant only in the albendazole-treated A. lumbricoides infection group (P = 0.008). Postvaccination levels of IL-2 were significantly greater in the albendazole-treated group compared with the placebo group (P = 0.03). No changes in levels of Th1 and Th2 cytokines in response to control ascaris antigens were observed over the same period. These findings indicate that vaccination with CVD 103-HgR is associated with a Th1 cytokine response (IL-2 and IFN-gamma) to CT-B, that infection with A. lumbricoides diminishes the magnitude of this response, and that albendazole treatment prior to vaccination was able to partially reverse the deficit in IL-2. The potential modulation of the immune response to oral vaccines by geohelminth parasites has important implications for the design of vaccination campaigns in geohelminth-endemic areas.

• Authors: P J Cooper, M Chico, C Sandoval, I Espinel, A Guevara, M M Levine, G E Griffin, T B Nutman
• Journal: Infection and immunity (Infect Immun) Vol. 69 Issue 3 Pg. 1574-80 (Mar 2001) ISSN: 0019-9567 [Print] United States
• PMID: 11179329 (Publication Type: Clinical Trial, Journal Article, Randomized Controlled Trial, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Anthelmintics
• Antigens, Helminth
• Cholera Vaccines
• Interleukin-2
• cholera vaccine CVD 103-HgR
• Interferon-gamma
• Cholera Toxin
• Albendazole

Topics

• Adult
• Albendazole (therapeutic use)
• Animals
• Anthelmintics (therapeutic use)
• Antigens, Helminth (immunology)
• Ascariasis (drug therapy, immunology)
• Ascaris lumbricoides (drug effects, immunology)
• Cholera (prevention & control)
• Cholera Toxin (immunology)
• Cholera Vaccines (immunology, therapeutic use)
• Double-Blind Method
• Female
• Humans
• Interferon-gamma (blood)
• Interleukin-2 (blood)
• Leukocytes, Mononuclear (immunology)
• Male
• Vaccination