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The Koala Immune Response to Chlamydial Infection and Vaccine Development—Advancing Our Immunological Understanding1.13 MB
Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
The Koala Immune Response to Chlamydial Infection and Vaccine Development—Advancing Our Immunological Understanding
Animals, Vol.11(2), pp.1-10
2021
Abstract
Chlamydia is a significant pathogen for many species, including the much-loved Australian marsupial, the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus). To combat this situation, focused research has gone into the development and refinement of a chlamydial vaccine for koalas. The foundation of this process has involved characterising the immune response of koalas to both natural chlamydial infection as well as vaccination. From parallels in human and mouse research, it is well-established that an effective anti-chlamydial response will involve a balance of cell-mediated Th1 responses involving interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), humoral Th2 responses involving systemic IgG and mucosal IgA, and inflammatory Th17 responses involving interleukin 17 (IL-17) and neutrophils. Characterisation of koalas with chlamydial disease has shown increased expression within all three of these major immunological pathways and monitoring of koalas’ post-vaccination has detected further enhancements to these key pathways. These findings offer optimism that a chlamydial vaccine for wider distribution to koalas is not far off. Recent advances in marsupial genetic knowledge and general nucleic acid assay technology have moved koala immunological research a step closer to other mammalian research systems. However, koala-specific reagents to directly assay cytokine levels and cell-surface markers are still needed to progress our understanding of koala immunology.
Details
- Title
- The Koala Immune Response to Chlamydial Infection and Vaccine Development—Advancing Our Immunological Understanding
- Authors
- Bonnie L Quigley (Author) - Provectus AlgaePeter Timms (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, GeneCology Research Centre - Legacy
- Publication details
- Animals, Vol.11(2), pp.1-10
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Date published
- 2021
- DOI
- 10.3390/ani11020380
- ISSN
- 2076-2615
- Copyright note
- This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
- Organisation Unit
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Thompson Institute; Centre for Bioinnovation
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99509508502621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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