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Immunological Effects of TBE Vaccination : Increased Expression of Transcription factor T-bet Indicates Activation of Th1-like Cellular Immunity

Tick-borne encephalitis virus is the cause of much morbidity and sometimes a fatal infection. A vaccine based on formaldehyde inactivated virus is currently the only available way of preventing disease. This vaccine gives a high rate of seroconversion but there are reports of vaccination breakthrough, even in people who have demonstrated a neutralizing antibody response. The T cell response to inactivated TBE vaccine is largely unknown, but could be of importance for the effect of the vaccine. This study characterizes aspects of the T cell response by investigating the expression of two transcription factors, T-bet and GATA-3 with RT-PCR. T-bet is expressed in CD4+ T cells of the Th1 type, while GATA-3 is expressed in CD4+ T cells of the Th2 type. Our data show that vaccination with inactivated TBE vaccine leads to increase in expression of the T-bet gene when cells of vaccinated subjects are cultured with TBE virus. In contrast, the expression of GATA-3 remains unaffected by vaccination. Thus, this study suggests that the inactivated TBE vaccine leads to a Th1-like immune response in humans.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-59537
Date January 2007
CreatorsAndersson, Pär
PublisherLinköpings universitet, Hälsouniversitetets läkarutbildning
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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