Generic Therapy after Exposure to Biological Warfare Agents: Validation of an in Vitro Dendritic Cell Culture System

摘要

The threat of the use of biological weapons, including bacteria, has increased. Bacterial resistance to antibiotics increasingly becomes a problem. Vaccination of military personnel against biothreat agents may be an option, however there is a broad range of biothreat agents, which may become even broader as a result of genetic engineering. Moreover, vaccination against multiple agents may cause undesired effects. A more generic approach to prevent the effects of a broad spectrum of bacteria via immunomodulation seems more effective. To be able to study the development of immune responses against bio- threat bacteria to select potential broad-spectrum therapeutics, an in vitro culture system of dendritic cells was chosen, since this cell type plays a central role in the development of immune responses. A dendritic cell culture system was validated using model compounds of which the effects on dendritic cells are known (LPS, IFN-gamma, PGE2). The system was analyzed by measuring expression of surface markers on dendritic cells as well as cytokine production by dendritic cells and polarized T cells. All responses were in agreement with published literature in peer-reviewed journals.