Vaginal memory T cells induced by intranasal vaccination are critical for protective T cell recruitment and prevention of genital HSV-2 disease.

UNLABELLED: Protective immunity against genital pathogens causing chronic infections, such as herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) or human immunodeficiency virus, requires the induction of cell-mediated immune responses locally in the genital tract. Intranasal immunization with a thymidine kinase-deficient (TK(-)) mutant of HSV-2 effectively induces HSV-2-specific gamma interferon (IFN-γ)-secreting memory T cell production and protective immunity against intravaginal challenge with wild-type HSV-2. However, the precise mechanism by which intranasal immunization induces protective immunity in the distant genital mucosa more effectively than does systemic immunization is unknown. Here, we showed that intranasal immunization with live HSV-2 TK(-) induced the production of effector T cells and their migration to, and retention in, the vaginal mucosa, whereas systemic vaccination barely established a local effector T cell pool, even when it induced the production of circulating memory T cells in the systemic compartment. The long-lasting HSV-2-specific local effector T cells induced by intranasal vaccination provided superior protection against intravaginal wild-type HSV-2 challenge by starting viral clearance at the entry site earlier than with intraperitoneal immunization. Intranasal immunization is an effective strategy for eliciting high levels of cell-mediated protection of the genital tract by providing long-lasting antigen (Ag)-specific local effector T cells without introducing topical infection or inflammation. IMPORTANCE: Intranasal (i.n.) vaccines against sexually transmitted diseases that are caused by viruses such as herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) have long been in development, but no vaccine candidate is currently available. Understanding the cellular mechanisms of immune responses in a distant vaginal mucosa induced by i.n. immunization with HSV-2 will contribute to designing such a vaccine. Our study demonstrated that i.n. immunization with an attenuated strain of HSV-2 generated long-lasting IFN-γ-secreting T cells in vaginal mucosa more effectively than systemic immunization. We found that these vaginal effector memory T cells are critical for the early stage of viral clearance at natural infection sites and prevent severe vaginal inflammation and herpes encephalitis.

A role for the CCR5-CCL5 interaction in the preferential migration of HSV-2-specific effector cells to the vaginal mucosa upon nasal immunization.

Our current study focused on elucidating the role of specific chemokine-receptor interactions in antigen (Ag)-specific immune cell migration from nasal to genital mucosal tissues. This cellular migration is critical to induce effective Ag-specific immune responses against sexually transmitted genital infections. In this study, nasal immunization with live attenuated HSV-2 TK- induced the upregulation of CCR5 expression in effector immune cells, including CD4+ T cells, in Ag-priming sites and vaginal tissue. The CCR5 ligands CCL3, CCL4, and CCL5 all showed upregulated expression in vaginal tissue; in particular, CCL5 expression was highly enhanced in the stromal cells of vaginal tissue after nasal immunization. Intravaginal blockade of CCL5 by using neutralizing antibody diminished the number of HSV-2-specific effector cells in the vagina. Furthermore, loss of CCR5, a receptor for CCL5, impaired the migration of nasally primed Ag-specific effector cells from the airway to vagina. Effector cells adoptively transferred from CCR5-deficient mice failed to migrate into vaginal tissue, consequently increasing recipient mice's susceptibility to HSV-2 vaginal infection. These results indicate that the CCR5-CCL5 chemokine pathway is required for the migration and retention of nasally primed Ag-specific effector cells in vagina for providing protective immunity against HSV-2 infection.