Abstract
The humoral immunity induced by many viral and bacterial vaccines mediates protection that is maintained over a long period of time. In contrast, for other intracellular infections (such as with Leishmania major or Mycobacterium tuberculosis ) for which cell-mediated immunity is required for protection, the mechanisms for developing durable responses after vaccination have not been well defined. Here we demonstrate that vaccination with plasmid DNA encoding a specific leishmanial antigen is more effective than leishmanial protein plus recombinant IL-12 in eliciting long-term immunity capable of controlling L. major infection. We also show that leishmanial protein plus IL-12 DNA produces an immunity that lasts much longer than does immunity elicited by leishmanial protein plus IL-12 protein, indicating that the persistence of IL-12 may be the essential determinant in maintaining durable cell-mediated immune responses for an intracellular parasitic infection.
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We thank S. Reiner and W. Paul for advice and B.R. Marshall for editorial assistance.
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Gurunathan, S., Prussin, C., Sacks, D. et al. Vaccine requirements for sustained cellular immunity to an intracellular parasitic infection. Nat Med 4, 1409–1415 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/4000
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/4000
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