Lintermans, P
DeGreve, H
The mucosal surfaces of the intestinal, respiratory and urogenital tracts are the site of action or the entrance path to the internal tissues for many pathogens. Local immunity induced by the pathogen is the main protector of the mucosal surfaces. To induce an effective protective local and systemic immunity, non-parenteral vaccines should be developed for immunization at the mucosal surfaces. Oral immunization with vaccines composed of killed pathogens or subunit proteins as antigens generally resulted in low immune responses, lack of protection and absence of an immune memory. Live carriers such as bacteria presenting homologous or heterologous antigens induce a mucosal immunity and thereby provide local protection. Several attenuated avirulent isolates of both pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria have been developed as vectors for mucosal immunization. Most of the available information on mucosal and systemic immune response against foreign antigens was obtained using attenuated Salmonellae as a delivery system. Carrier vaccines should be safe for the host and the environment, effective and easy to administer. Such vaccines are under development in different carrier systems.
Bibliographic reference |
Lintermans, P ; DeGreve, H. Live bacterial vectors for mucosal immunization. In: Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, Vol. 18, no. 1, p. 73-89 (1995) |
Permanent URL |
http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/47409 |