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Vaccine adjuvant properties of probiotic bacteria
Paul V Licciardi1, Mimi L K Tang
1Pneumococcal Laboratory, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia.
Insights
Probiotics show promise as mucosal adjuvants to improve vaccine effectiveness and completion rates, especially in resource-poor countries facing high vaccine-preventable disease burdens. Further research is needed to explore their clinical effects and mechanisms for enhanced immunization strategies.
Area of Science:
- Immunology
- Vaccinology
- Microbiology
Background:
- Vaccine-preventable diseases cause over 1 million child deaths annually, particularly in developing nations, with pneumococcal and rotavirus infections being major contributors.
- Challenges in resource-poor settings include cost-effective vaccine introduction, achieving high vaccination schedule completion, and ensuring adequate vaccine coverage.
- Existing vaccination strategies require enhancement to provide adequate protection with reduced schedules, especially for remote populations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the evidence supporting the use of probiotics as mucosal adjuvants to boost vaccine-specific immune responses.
- To explore the potential of probiotics in overcoming challenges associated with current vaccination strategies, such as low coverage and multiple dosing requirements.
- To provide justification for further investigation into the clinical efficacy and mechanisms of action of probiotics in enhancing vaccine responses.
Main Methods:
- Literature review focusing on studies investigating probiotics as adjuvants for vaccines.
- Analysis of research on mucosal vaccine delivery and immune response enhancement.
- Examination of the role of probiotics in modulating immune responses relevant to vaccination.
Main Results:
- Probiotic bacteria present a novel approach as mucosal adjuvants, potentially enhancing existing vaccine-specific immune responses.
- Mucosally-administered vaccines, potentially aided by probiotics, offer benefits for remote areas and may reduce the need for multiple doses.
- Evidence suggests probiotics can play a role in improving vaccine efficacy and overcoming coverage gaps.
Conclusions:
- Probiotics offer a promising strategy for enhancing vaccine responses and improving immunization coverage, particularly in challenging environments.
- Further clinical investigation into the effects and mechanisms of probiotics as vaccine adjuvants is warranted.
- Developing effective vaccination strategies using probiotics could significantly impact global child mortality from vaccine-preventable diseases.
Abstract:
Vaccine-preventable diseases are still responsible for the deaths of more than 1 million children under the age of 5 years annually, mostly in developing countries. A substantial number of these deaths are due to pneumococcal bacteria and infections with rotavirus. Important issues faced by the WHO, governments, vaccine manufacturers, and international organizations such as UNICEF and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) are the cost-effective introduction of these life-saving vaccines in resource-poor countries where there is a considerable disease burden, and achieving high rates of completion of vaccination schedules remains elusive. Problems with vaccine coverage and vaccine delivery in these regions are significant, as in some cases large proportions of the target population do not receive adequate vaccination. Consequently, there is a need to develop more effective vaccination strategies that can provide adequate protection with reduced schedules. To date, emphasis has been placed on identifying novel vaccine antigens and adjuvants that induce stronger protective immune responses, as well as developing mucosally-administered vaccines. These approaches would have enormous benefits in allowing safe administration of vaccines in remote areas and may overcome the necessity for multiple doses. In this regard, the use of probiotic bacteria as novel mucosal adjuvants to enhance existing vaccine specific-immune responses offers an exciting new approach. In this review, we discuss the evidence for the role of probiotics in enhancing vaccine responses and provide justification for further investigation into their clinical effects and mechanisms of action.
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