LPS and Health Maintenance

(3) Influenza and LPS

It has been reported that oral ingestion of LPS is effective for prevention of infection by influenza vaccine (*1).

Vaccination is an infection prevention method based on the applied principle of acquired immunity as follows: once a person is exposed to a pathogen, an antibody against the pathogen is produced in the body so that, when infected with this pathogen for a second time, the person experiences only mild symptoms or none at all. Therefore, influenza vaccines are administered using some components of the influenza virus or killed influenza viruses. At this time, however, the antibody cannot be effectively induced by administering influenza virus components only; a specific type of molecule, called an adjuvant, is required to boost efficacy. LPS can be an ideal adjuvant.

Animal studies have shown that when LPS is orally administered as an adjuvant, antibody production is significantly enhanced. This suggests the promising development of sublingual vaccines, rather than injections, in the not-too-distant future by using LPS as an oral adjuvant (*1).

(*1) A Lipopolysaccharide from Pantoea Agglomerans Is a Promising Adjuvant for Sublingual Vaccines to Induce Systemic and Mucosal Immune Responses in Mice via TLR4 Pathway, PLoS ONE 10 (5) e0126849. (2015)