Download Lactic acid bacteria for mucosal vaccines and therapy

A I I0 Biochemical Society Transactions (2002) Volume 30, Part 6
D14 Plant biotcchnology and plant food allergens
L.R. Beach
3939 Maquoketa Drive, Des Moines, I A USA 10311-2636
El
Clinical importance of the intervertebral disc
J.C.T. Fairbank
Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Oxford O X 3 7 L D
The development of corn products with enhanced nutritional
composition for improved feed will be used as examples in the
process used to evaluate the potential allergenicity of candidate
proteins. The alternative strategies to improve grain quality will be
discussed with the allergenic risk potential for each strategy as a key
factor to consider. The use of the decision tree for the evaluation of
potential allergens as developed by the International Life Sciences
Institute will be illustrated.
Back pain is one of the most common symptoms and a major public
health problem. The causes of back pain are multi-faceted. We
remain ignorant in most cases of the precise cause of back pain.
Intervertebral disc degeneration parallels the incidence of back pain
although does not correlate absolutely with it. Psycho-social factors
are important in chronic low back pain and may have a dramatic
effect o n the outcome of treatment. Some intervertebral disc
pathology such as prolapse gives a definite clinical syndrome of root
pain. Even this is not closely related to disc pressure and may result
from cytokines released from the degenerating disc. Most back pain
is managed by a focus on developing muscle function in the back.
When this fails a small proportion of patients can be helped by
spinal fusion. This clinical confusion makes study of the
mechanisms of disc degeneration difficult to interpret. Basic research
requires close clinical cooperation to interpret and apply results of
laboratory research to clinical practice.
D15 Lactic acid bacteria for mucosal vaccines and therapy
E2 Develouent of the annulus fibrosus
J.R.Rilphs
S. Hanniffy and J. Wells
Institute of Food Research, Norwich, N R 4 7UA
There is a considerable need to develop systems for the oral delivery
of vaccines, therapeutic proteins and other substances to the
intestinal tract where they would have the most potent local effects
and/or maximum absorption rates. Studies carried out by a small
number of independent laboratories and involving two successive
European partnerships has now unequivocally demonstrated that
immunisation with L.lactis and certain species of Lactobacillus
expressing vaccine antigens can elicit antigen specific secretory IgA
and protective levels of serum antibodies. Recently, L.lactis
engineered to secrete IL-2 o r IL-6 was shown to potentiate o r
modulate immune responses to a co-expressed antigen following
mucosal immunisation. This important discovery indicated that biologically active proteins such as cytokines, enzymes and other
bioactive molecules could be delivered to the intestinal tract using
harmless lactic acid bacteria as mucosal delivery vehicles. Further
potential exists to use LAB delivery systems to induce oral tolerance
and suppress immunopathology in autoimmune diseases o r abrogate
hypersensitivity to certain allergens. A new project funded by the
European Commission entitled LABDEL, is aimed at harnessing
this potential by developing and testing prototype LAB-based
products for vaccination, prevention and treatment of type I allergy,
treatment of a metabolic disorder and delivery of a therapeutic
antioxidant. An overview of the LABDEL project and its progress
will be presented.
0 2002 Biochemical Society
School of Biosciences, Cardiff University (BIOSI2), PO Box
911, Cardiff CFlO3US
Intervertebral discs have complex developmental origins. They arise
in the embryo as periodic cellular condensations between the early
vertebral bodies, centred around the notochord. The first sign of
disc differentiation is swelling of the notochord to form the early
nucleus pulposus, triggered by pressure from cartilage differentiation in the vertebral bodies. Coincident with this, the condensations
differentiate into the annulus fibrosus, with inner cartilaginous and
outer fibrous parts, as shown by their content of type I1 collagen
and aggrecan and type I collagen and versican respectively. The
organisation of collagen in the outer annulus is crucial to disc, and
therefore spine, function. In adults, collagen is organised into
lamellae; each contains parallel collagen fibres linking adjacent
vertebral bodies, and successive lamellae have fibre angles of 50-60
degrees to one another, forming a radial ply structure. This orientation is set up at early stages of disc differentiation by cell orientation
in the presumptive annulus; as the notochord bulges, outer annulus
cells form sheets of parallel fibroblasts with the long axis of the cells
in successive sheets alternating in angle by 50-60 degrees. The cell
layers then deposit the oriented collagen. This orientation process is
driven by the actin cytoskeleton and based o n organisation of cellcell contacts in the disc condensation.