Cholera and Oral-Mucosal Anti-infectious and Anti-inflammatory Vaccines

Publisher Summary Since immune-activated lymphocytes from the intestinal mucosa can migrate to various other glandular-mucosal tissues, there is currently much interest in developing oral vaccines not only against enteric infections but also against infections in, for example, the respiratory and urogenital tracts. This chapter describes the recent development of safe and efficacious oral vaccines against cholera and Escherichia coli diarrhea, and current efforts to use the cholera toxin-binding subunit as an immunostimulatory carrier and transmucosal delivery system for inducing mucosal immunity as well as systemic “oral tolerance” against attached foreign antigens. Beyond their implications for the development of anti-infectious vaccines, the findings may have an impact also by providing leads to the development of novel anti-inflanmiatory vaccines and immunotherapeutics against diseases associated with certain untoward immune responses, for example, certain chronic infections, autoimmune disorders, allergies, and rejection of allografts.