Browsing by Author "Arunachalam, Prabhu S."

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    Mechanisms of innate and adaptive immunity to the Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 vaccine
    (Springer Nature, 2022) Li, Chunfeng; Lee, Audrey; Grigoryan, Lilit; Arunachalam, Prabhu S.; Scott, Madeleine K.D.; Trisal, Meera; Wimmers, Florian; Sanyal, Mrinmoy; Weidenbacher, Payton A.; Feng, Yupeng; Adamska, Julia Z.; Valore, Erika; Wang, Yanli; Verma, Rohit; Reis, Noah; Dunham, Diane; O’Hara, Ruth; Park, Helen; Luo, Wei; Gitlin, Alexander D.; Kim, Peter; Khatri, Purvesh; Nadeau, Kari C.; Pulendran, Bali; Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine
    Despite the success of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine, the immunological mechanisms that underlie its efficacy are poorly understood. Here we analyzed the innate and adaptive responses to BNT162b2 in mice, and show that immunization stimulated potent antibody and antigen-specific T cell responses, as well as strikingly enhanced innate responses after secondary immunization, which was concurrent with enhanced serum interferon (IFN)-γ levels 1 d following secondary immunization. Notably, we found that natural killer cells and CD8+ T cells in the draining lymph nodes are the major producers of this circulating IFN-γ. Analysis of knockout mice revealed that induction of antibody and T cell responses to BNT162b2 was not dependent on signaling via Toll-like receptors 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 nor inflammasome activation, nor the necroptosis or pyroptosis cell death pathways. Rather, the CD8+ T cell response induced by BNT162b2 was dependent on type I interferon-dependent MDA5 signaling. These results provide insights into the molecular mechanisms by which the BNT162b2 vaccine stimulates immune responses.
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    A molecular atlas of innate immunity to adjuvanted and live attenuated vaccines, in mice
    (Springer Nature, 2022-01-27) Lee, Audrey; Scott, Madeleine K.D.; Wimmers, Florian; Arunachalam, Prabhu S.; Luo, Wei; Fox, Christopher B.; Tomai, Mark; Khatri, Purvesh; Pulendran, Bali; Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine
    Adjuvants hold great potential in enhancing vaccine efficacy, making the understanding and improving of adjuvants critical goals in vaccinology. The TLR7/8 agonist, 3M-052, induces long-lived humoral immunity in non-human primates and is currently being evaluated in human clinical trials. However, the innate mechanisms of 3M-052 have not been fully characterized. Here, we perform flow cytometry, single cell RNA-seq and ATAC-seq to profile the kinetics, transcriptomics and epigenomics of innate immune cells in murine draining lymph nodes following 3M-052-Alum/Ovalbumin immunization. We find that 3M-052-Alum/OVA induces a robust antiviral and interferon gene program, similar to the yellow fever vaccine, which is known to confer long-lasting protection. Activation of myeloid cells in dLNs persists through day 28 and single cell analysis reveals putative TF-gene regulatory programs in distinct myeloid cells and heterogeneity of monocytes. This study provides a comprehensive characterization of the transcriptomics and epigenomics of innate populations in the dLNs after vaccination.