Smallpox vaccine safety is dependent on T cells and not B cells.

Shari N Gordon (1) , Valentina Cecchinato (1) , Vibeke Andresen (1) , Jean-Michel Heraud (2) , Anna Hryniewicz (1) , Robyn Washington Parks (1) , David Venzon (3) , Hye-Kyung Chung (4) , Tatiana Karpova (5) , James Mcnally (6) , Peter Silvera (6) , Keith A Reimann (7) , Hajime Matsui (8) , Tomomi Kanehara (8) , Yasuhiko Shinmura (8) , Hiroyuki Yokote (8) , Genoveffa Franchini (1)

1 Animal Models and Retroviral Vaccines Section
2 Institut Pasteur de Madagascar
3 Biostatistics and Data Management Section
4 Advanced Bioscience Laboratories
5 Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology
6 Southern Research Institute
7 Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
8 The Chemo-Sero-Therapeutic Research Institute (KAKETSUKEN)

(See the editorial commentary by Bray, on pages 1037-9.) The licensed smallpox vaccine, ACAM2000, is a cell culture derivative of Dryvax. Both ACAM2000 and Dryvax are administered by skin scarification and can cause progressive vaccinia, with skin lesions that disseminate to distal sites. We have investigated the immunologic basis of the containment of vaccinia in the skin with the goal to identify safer vaccines for smallpox. Macaques were depleted systemically of T or B cells and vaccinated with either Dryvax or an attenuated vaccinia vaccine, LC16m8. B cell depletion did not affect the size of skin lesions induced by either vaccine. However, while depletion of both CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells had no adverse effects on LC16m8-vaccinated animals, it caused progressive vaccinia in macaques immunized with Dryvax. As both Dryvax and LC16m8 vaccines protect healthy macaques from a lethal monkeypox intravenous challenge, our data identify LC16m8 as a safer and effective alternative to ACAM2000 and Dryvax vaccines for immunocompromised individuals.

Domaines: Virologie

Shari N Gordon, Valentina Cecchinato, Vibeke Andresen, Jean-Michel Heraud, Anna Hryniewicz, et al.. Smallpox vaccine safety is dependent on T cells and not B cells.. Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2011, 203 (8), pp.1043-53. ⟨10.1093/infdis/jiq162⟩. ⟨pasteur-00589392⟩