ENHANCEMENT OF HUMORAL IMMUNE RESPONSES BY NKT CELLS

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Vaccines stimulate long-term humoral (antibody-mediated) immunity against pathogens and provide long-term protection against disease. Diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, scarlet fever and many other diseases are now relatively rare. Despite the enormous positive impact of antibody-inducing vaccines on public health, we do not have effective vaccines for all pathogenic bacteria. Pathogens that result in meningitis, tuberculosis and other diseases still pose significant dangers. Furthermore, there is a need for improved vaccines against bacterial agents considered to be bioterrorism threats. To address the challenges inherent in developing vaccines against such pathogens we need to improve our understanding of the induction and maintenance of humoral immunity at a mechanistic level. We discovered that activation of invariant Natural Killer-like T cells (inv. NKT) greatly enhances humoral responses to bacterial antigens in vivo. New studies in the Lang laboratory indicate that NKT cells have several effects on the induction and maintenance of humoral immunity and with INBRE support we are following these new leads. With support from the INBRE program led by Dr. Waxman, Dr. Lang was able to hire a research assistant T. Scott Devera B.S. within 1 month of taking up a new position at OUHSC. Mr. Deveras efforts were initially focused on helping to set up a new laboratory and establish mouse colonies for experiments. More recently he has produced new data to accelerate our development of a new project for submission of an RO1 application to the NIH.