Protective Efficacy and Pulmonary Immune Response Following Subcutaneous and Intranasal BCG Administration in Mice

Despite global coverage of intradermal BCG vaccination, tuberculosis remains one of the most prevalent infectious diseases in the world. Preclinical data have encouraged pulmonary tuberculosis vaccines as a promising strategy to prevent pulmonary disease, which is responsible for transmission. In this work, we describe the methodology used to demonstrate in the mouse model the benefits of intranasal BCG vaccination when compared to subcutaneous. Our data revealed greater protective efficacy following intranasal BCG administration. In addition, our results indicate that pulmonary vaccination triggers a higher immune response in lungs, including Th1 and Th17 responses, as well as an increase of immunoglobulin A (IgA) concentration in respiratory airways. Our data show correlation between protective efficacy and the presence of IL17-producing cells in lungs post-Mycobacterium tuberculosis challenge, suggesting a role for this cytokine in the protective response conferred by pulmonary vaccination. Finally, we detail the global workflow we have developed to study respiratory vaccination in the mouse model, which could be extrapolated to other tuberculosis vaccines, apart from BCG, targeting the mucosal response or other pulmonary routes of administration such as the intratracheal or aerosol.