SEMINAL VESICLE FLUID INCREASES THE EFFICACY OF INTRAVAGINAL HSV-2 VACCINATION

A. VARESE; J. ODDI; F. REMES LENICOV; M. GONZALEZ PRINZ; A. MERLOTTI; J. GEFFNER; A. CEBALLOS

Mar del Plata

Congreso; LXIV Reunión Científica de la Sociedad Argentina de Inmunología; 2016

Sociedad Argentina de Inmunología

Semen induces biological actions on the female reproductive tissuesdirected to modulate the immune response against paternal antigens. However,the influence of seminal plasma on the immune response against sexuallytransmitted pathogens has not been yet evaluated. Our aim was analyze whetherthe seminal vesicle fluid (SVF), might compromise the induction of a protectivememory response induced by HSV-2 vaccination. SVF was extracted post-mortemfrom 10-week-old BALB/c males. Female BALB/c mice were vaccinated IVAG withinactivated HSV-2 (1x104 pfu/15 ul), without or with SVF (protein concentration5 mg/ml). Thirty days later, mice were challenged IVAG wiht HSV-2 lethal dose.Mice were examined for clinical score and survival. Draining lymph nodes (DLN)and genital mucosa cells were recovered and phenotype and cytokines productionwas assessed by flow cytometry, ELISA, and qPCR. We observed thatSVF-vaccinated mice showed 90% survival (control 10% n=20 p<0.001, and minor disease progression (1.278+/-0.1 mean +/-SEM, n=20, p<0.001). These mice hadincreased IFN-alfa (n=3,p<0.05), TNF-alfa (n=3, p<0.001), IL-17A (n=3,p<0.05), IL-6 (n=3, p<0.05) and lower IL-10 (n=3, p<0.05) production at the site of infection. Also, we found SVF-vaccinated miceshowed a higher frequency of memory/effector like T cells (CD44highCD62Llow)and central memory T cells (CD44highCD62Lhigh) in both CD4+ (n=3, p<0.001) and CD8+ (n=3, p<0.05) T cell compartments. These changes were shown to be associated to amarked increase in the production of TNF-alfa and IFN-alfa (n=3, p<0.05 andp<0.001, respectively). We observe that SVFsignificantly increased the expression of CD86 (MFI 5982 vs 3808,n=3) in vaginal DCs 48 hs post vaccination and the frequency and the totalnumber of DCs in DLN (n=3, p<0.05) .In contrast with thenotion that semen acts as an immunosuppressive agent, our results suggest thatSVF might induce an adjuvant effect on the female immune response againstsexually transmitted pathogens.