Role of memory B cell migration through the lymph node subcapsular sinus

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Vaccination programmes are a core element of public health strategy worldwide and are key to preventing a wide range of life threatening infections. How vaccines induce immune memory to bacteria and viruses are still poorly understood. We know that vaccination and infection induces B cells to mutate and adapt their genes coding for antibody specific to structures seen on the vaccine. These mutations then will lead to the production of highly specific antibody that can neutralize bacteria or viruses. During this process are also long-lived memory B cells generated, which preserve these mutations for a long time.We recently observed that memory B cells not only spread through the body and preserve information on vaccines encountered, they also seem to harvest vaccine particles they encounter and transport them back to the places where B cells mature. The purpose of this project is to understand why memory B cells do this antigen harvest, and which factors regulate it. To understand the regulation, we will produce B cells that cannot produce a range of receptors that direct memory B cell migration. To understand the function of antigen transport, we will disrupt the process and test whether efficient B cell maturation is dependent on continued antigen harvest and transport by memory B cells. Aged people have problems efficiently producing good antibody responses to vaccines. Some of the defects seen during their B cell maturation may be due to a defect in antigen harvest by memory B cells, and we plan to test whether this process is disrupted in the aged immune system.Results from this project will help to better understand how vaccines induce protective immune responses and memory. We may better understand how vaccines should be designed or delivered. Better understanding why elderly do not react efficiently to vaccination may lead to ideas on how to correct this process.