Latest research: Co-regulation of innate and adaptive immune responses induced by ID93+GLA-SE vaccination in humans

SATVI scholars, Professors Mark Hatherill, Tom Scriba and Angelique Luabeya have co-authored "Co-regulation of innate and adaptive immune responses induced by ID93+GLA-SE vaccination in humans" appearing in the Frontiers in Immunology journal. 

Introduction: Development of an effective vaccine against tuberculosis is a critical step towards reducing the global burden of disease. A therapeutic
vaccine might also reduce the high rate of TB recurrence and help address the challenges of drug-resistant strains. ID93+GLA-SE is a candidate subunit vaccine that will soon be evaluated in a phase 2b efficacy trial for prevention of recurrent TB among patients undergoing TB treatment. ID93+GLA-SE vaccination was shown to elicit robust CD4+ T cell and IgG antibody responses among recently treated TB patients in the TBVPX-203 Phase 2a study (NCT02465216), but the mechanisms underlying these responses are not well understood.

Methods: In this study we used specimens from TBVPX-203 participants to describe the changes in peripheral blood gene expression that occur after ID93 +GLA-SE vaccination.

Results: Analyses revealed several distinct modules of co-varying genes that were either up- or down-regulated after vaccination, including genes associated with innate immune pathways at 3 days post-vaccination and genes associated with lymphocyte expansion and B cell activation at 7 days post-vaccination. Notably, the regulation of these gene modules was affected by the dose schedule and by participant sex, and early innate gene signatures were correlated with the ID93-specific CD4+ T cell response.