Adjuvant Curdlan Contributes to Immunization against Cryptococcus gattii Infection in a Mouse Strain-Specific Manner

• Published in: Vaccines (Basel) Vol. 10; no. 4; p. 620
• Main Authors: Oliveira-Brito, Patrícia Kellen Martins, de Campos, Gabriela Yamazaki, Guimarães, Júlia Garcia, Serafim da Costa, Letícia, Silva de Moura, Edanielle, Lazo-Chica, Javier Emílio, Roque-Barreira, Maria Cristina, da Silva, Thiago Aparecido
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 15-04-2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Antifungal agents; Apoptosis; Cryptococcus gattii; curdlan; Cytokines; Dectin-1; Fungal infections; Fungi; Fungicides; Glucan; Health care; Immune response; Immune system; Immunization; immunotherapy; Interferon; Interleukins; Kinases; Ligands; Lungs; Parenchyma; Pathogens; Peptides; Public health; Side effects; Tumor necrosis factor-TNF; Tumor necrosis factor-α; β-Glucan; β-glucan peptide; γ-Interferon; Brazil; United States > US; Cryptococcus gattii; curdlan; Dectin-1; β-glucan peptide; immunotherapy
• ISSN: 2076-393X; 2076-393X
• DOI: 10.3390/vaccines10040620

The low efficacy and side effects associated with antifungal agents have highlighted the importance of developing immunotherapeutic approaches to treat
infection. We developed an immunization strategy that uses selective Dectin-1 agonist as an adjuvant. BALB/c or C57BL/6 mice received curdlan or β-glucan peptide (BGP) before immunization with heat-killed
, and the mice were infected with viable
on day 14 post immunization and euthanized 14 days after infection. Adjuvant curdlan restored pulmonary tumor necrosis factor- α (TNF-α) levels, as induced by immunization with heat-killed
The average area and relative frequency of
titan cells in the lungs of curdlan-treated BALB/c mice were reduced. However, this did not reduce the pulmonary fungal burden or decrease the i0,nflammatory infiltrate in the pulmonary parenchyma of BALB/c mice. Conversely, adjuvant curdlan induced high levels of interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and interleukin (IL)-10 and decreased the
burden in the lungs of C57BL/6 mice, which was not replicated in β-glucan peptide-treated mice. The adjuvant curdlan favors the control of
infection depending on the immune response profile of the mouse strain. This study will have implications for developing new immunotherapeutic approaches to treat
infection.