Bacterial flagellins are important virulence-associated factors and strong inducers of inflammatory responses in mammalian hosts. Flagellins have also been investigated as potential vaccine adjuvants, either for induction of humoral or cellular immune responses, to different target antigens. In this study we investigated the adjuvant properties of three Salmonella enterica flagellins types (FliCd, FliCi and FljB) to an ovalbumin-derived CD8(+) T cell-restricted epitope (OVA257-264). Although mice immunized with the three tested flagellins elicited antigen-specific activated CD8(+) T cells, only animals immunized with FliCi and FliCd flagellins admixed with ovalbumin mounted specific in vivo cytotoxic responses to peptide-pulsed target cells. The present results indicate that Salmonella flagellins are endowed with type-specific adjuvant effects toward murine CD8(+) T cells, a feature that may impact their use as adjuvants for prophylatic or therapeutic vaccines.
Keywords: Salmonella; adjuvants; cytotoxic T cells; flagellin; vaccines.