Rapid dose-dependent Natural Killer (NK) cell modulation and cytokine responses following human rVSV-ZEBOV Ebolavirus vaccination

David Pejoski; Casimir de Rham; Paola Martinez-Murillo; Francesco Santoro; Floriane Auderset; Donata Medaglini; Gianni Pozzi; Maria Vono; Paul-Henri Lambert; Angela Huttner; Mariëlle C Haks; Tom H M Ottenhoff; Jean Villard; Claire-Anne Siegrist; VEBCON Consortium; VSV-EBOVAC Consortium; VSV-EBOPLUS Consortium

doi:10.1038/s41541-020-0179-4

Rapid dose-dependent Natural Killer (NK) cell modulation and cytokine responses following human rVSV-ZEBOV Ebolavirus vaccination

NPJ Vaccines. 2020 Apr 14;5(1):32. doi: 10.1038/s41541-020-0179-4. eCollection 2020.

Authors

David Pejoski^{1

2}, Casimir de Rham^{1

3}, Paola Martinez-Murillo^{1

2}, Francesco Santoro⁴, Floriane Auderset^{1

2}, Donata Medaglini⁴, Gianni Pozzi⁴, Maria Vono^{1

2}, Paul-Henri Lambert^{1

2}, Angela Huttner^{2

5}, Mariëlle C Haks⁶, Tom H M Ottenhoff⁶, Jean Villard^{1

3}, Claire-Anne Siegrist^{1

2}; VEBCON Consortium; VSV-EBOVAC Consortium; VSV-EBOPLUS Consortium

Collaborators

Marylyn M Addo, Selidji Todagbe Agnandji, Stephan Becker, Philip Bejon, Jessica S Brosnahan, Patricia Fast, Angela Huttner, Verena Krähling, Marie-Paule Kieny, Peter G Kremsner, Sanjeev Krishna, Olivier Lapujade, Vasee Moorthy, Patricia Njuguna, Barbara Savarese, Claire-Anne Siegrist, Selidji Todagbe Agnandji, Rafi Ahmed, Jenna Anderson, Floriane Auderset, Philip Bejon, Luisa Borgianni, Jessica S Brosnahan, Annalisa Ciabattini, Olivier Engler, Mariëlle C Haks, Ali Harandi, Donald Gray Heppner, Alice Gerlini, Angela Huttner, Peter G Kremsner, Paola Martinez-Murillo, Donata Medaglini, Thomas Monath, Francis Ndungu, Patricia Njuguna, Tom H M Ottenhoff, Mark Page, David Pejoski, Gianni Pozzi, Francesco Santoro, Claire-Anne Siegrist, Selidji Todagbe Agnandji, Jenna Anderson, Floriane Auderset, Luisa Borgianni, Annalisa Ciabattini, Sheri Dubey, Olivier Engler, José F Fernandes, Mariëlle C Haks, Ali Harandi, Alice Gerlini, Angela Huttner, Peter G Kremsner, Paola Martinez-Murillo, Donata Medaglini, Thomas Monath, Helder Nakaya, Fiona O'Rourke, Tom H M Ottenhoff, David Pejoski, Gianni Pozzi, Sylvia Rothenberger, Francesco Santoro, Claire-Anne Siegrist

Affiliations

¹ 1Department of Pathology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
² 2World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Vaccine Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
³ 3Immunology and Transplantation Unit, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland.
⁴ 4Department of Medical Biotechnologies, University of Siena, Siena, Italy.
⁵ 5Infectious Diseases Service, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland.
⁶ 6Department of Infectious Diseases, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Abstract

The rVSV-ZEBOV Ebolavirus vaccine confers protection within days after immunization, suggesting the contribution of innate immune responses. We report modulation of rVSV-ZEBOV vaccinee blood CD56⁺ NK cell numbers, NKG2D or NKp30 surface receptor expression, Killer Immunoglobulin-like Receptor (KIR)⁺ cell percentages and NK-cell-related genes on day 1 post immunization. Inverse correlations existed between the concentration of several plasma cytokines and inhibitory KIR⁺ CD56^dim or cytokine-responsive CD56^bright NK cells. Thus, NK cells may contribute to the early protective efficacy of rVSV-ZEBOV in humans.

Keywords: Innate immunity; Live attenuated vaccines; Vaccines.

Grants and funding

WT_/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom