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Infection and Immunity, May 2004, p. 2598-2604, Vol. 72, No. 5
0019-9567/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/IAI.72.5.2598-2604.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Impairment of Tetanus-Specific Cellular and Humoral Responses following Tetanus Vaccination in Human Lymphatic Filariasis

Center for Biotechnology, Anna University, Chennai 600025,¹ Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Chennai 600006, India,² Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892³

Received 17 October 2003/ Returned for modification 9 December 2003/ Accepted 7 February 2004

To investigate the consequences of the impaired parasite-specific immune response in lymphatic filariasis, the effect of concurrent Wuchereria bancrofti infection on the immune response to tetanus toxoid (TT) following tetanus vaccination was studied in 20 asymptomatic microfilaremic (MF) patients, 20 patients with chronic lymphatic obstruction/elephantiasis (chronic pathology [CP]), and 10 endemic normal (EN) control individuals at baseline and at 3 and 6 months after TT vaccination. Peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) proliferative responses to TT before vaccination were not significantly different between the EN control and CP groups, but the MF group showed significantly lower baseline proliferative responses to TT compared with either the EN or CP group. Six months following vaccination, the change in proliferative response to TT was significantly greater in the EN and CP groups than in the MF group. This difference in proliferative response was reiterated in the gamma interferon (IFN-) response in the EN group, in that they increased IFN- production by 400% at 6 months, in contrast to that seen in the filaria-infected groups. In contrast to the IFN- responses, PBMCs from the MF group produced significantly increased levels of TT-specific IL-10 compared with PBMCs from the EN group. Although there was significantly greater TT-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) production at baseline between the EN and MF groups, postvaccination IgG (and IgG1 isotype) responses did not differ among the groups, whereas TT-specific IgG2, IgG3, and IgG4 were all increased in the EN group compared with the filaria-infected groups. These studies indicate that concurrent infection with W. bancrofti can diminish the immune response to an unrelated antigen by a mechanism that is likely to involve IL-10.

Editor: W. A. Petri, Jr.

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