Journal article
A comparative analysis of polyfunctional t cells and secreted cytokines induced by bacille calmette-guérin immunisation in children and adults
N Ritz, M Strach, C Yau, B Dutta, M Tebruegge, TG Connell, WA Hanekom, WJ Britton, R Robins-Browne, N Curtis
Plos One | PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE | Published : 2012
Abstract
BCG vaccine is one of the most commonly-administered vaccines worldwide. Studies suggest the protective efficacy of BCG against TB is better for children than for adults. One potential explanation is that BCG induces a better protective immune response in children. Twenty six children and adults were immunised with BCG. The proportion of Th1-cytokine-producing mycobacterial-specific T cells, and the concentrations of secreted cytokines, were measured before and 10 weeks after BCG immunisation. A significant increase in the proportion of mycobacterial-specific cytokine-producing T cells was observed in both age groups. After BCG immunisation, children and adults had comparable proportions of ..
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Funding Acknowledgements
NR and MT were supported by Fellowship awards from the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases and scholarships from The University of Melbourne. This work was supported by a grant from the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne, Parkville, Australia. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.