Immunization route

Kozlowski, P. A., Cu-Uvin, S., Neutra, M. R., and Flanigan, T. P. (1997), Comparison of the oral, rectal, and vaginal immunization routes for induction of antibodies in rectal and genital tract secretions of women, Infect. Immun., 65,1387-1394. 

Bivas-Benita et al. (2004) has proposed chitosan-DNA nanoparticles for pulmonary delivery of a DNA vaccine for Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The authors used an HLA-A2 transgenic mouse model to investigate the effect of pulmonary delivery of a new pDNA encoding eight HLA-A 0201-restricted T cell epitopes from M. tuberculosis formulated in chitosan nanoparticles. Pulmonary administration of these nanoparticles was shown to induce the maturation of dendritic cells as well as induce increased levels of IFN-y secretion compared to pulmonary delivery of plasmids in solution or the intramuscular immunization route (Bivas-Benita et al. 2004). 

Antigen Dosage form Immunization route Chitosan type Adjuvants Animal model hnmune response References... 

Since the limited information available on the effects of dermally administered endosulfan suggests that this chemical behaves similarly across both routes of exposure and that adverse effects on immune function end points have also been observed in vitro, there is no reason to suspect that the immunotoxic effects observed following oral exposure are route-specific. Tests of immunologic function in exposed human populations would provide information as to whether immunosuppression also occurs in humans... 

In additional studies, Wiles et al. (5) found that rats and rabbits given palytoxin by either the ir or po route appear to be protected against a subsequent iv or im injection. This tolerance, or immunity, appears to be related to the time between initial exposure and subsequent challenge. 

Two major advantages stem from the use of live vaccines. Firstly, the immunization mimics a natural infection such that only a single exposure is required to render an individual immune. Secondly, the exposure may be mediated through the natural route of infection (e.g. oral) thereby stimulating an immime response that is appropriate to a particular disease (e.g. secretory antibody as primary defence against poliomyelitis virus in the gut). 

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