Discovered more than 70 years ago, aluminum salts (alum) are still the most widely used adjuvants in vaccines. Alum was recently shown to promote the processing of interleukin-1β, interleukin-18 and interleukin-33 via the activation of a multi-molecular platform called inflammasome. Using in vitro models of cord blood dendritic cell activation and in vivo models of vaccine responses in newborn mice, we will study the functionality of the inflammasome in early life and the innate and adaptive immune responses induced by alum alone or in combination with monophosphoryl lipid A, an adjuvant system which is included in several vaccines under development.

Principal investigator: Stéphane TEMMERMAN (PhD)
Associate investigators: Dominique DE WIT (PhD), Véronique FLAMAND (PhD)
MD-PhD student: Mathieu ANDRIANNE
Technical assistant : Arnaud WILMAR

Goriely S, Van Lint C, Dadkhah R, Libin M, De Wit D, Demonté D, Willems F, Goldman M. A defect in nucleosome remodeling prevents IL-12 (p35) gene transcription in neonatal dendritic cells. J Exp Med 2004; 199: 1011-1016

De Wit D, Olislagers V, Goriely S, Vermeulen F, Wagner H, Goldman M, Willems F. Blood plasmacytoid dendritic cell responses to CpG oligodeoxynucleotides are impaired in human newborns. Blood 2004; 103: 1030-1032

Tonon S, Badran B, Willard-Gallo K, Benghiat S, Flamand V, Willems F, Goldman M, De Wit D. Pertussis toxin activates adult and neonatal naive human CD4+ T lymphocytes. Eur J Immunol 2006; 36: 1794-1804

Government of the Walloon Region
GSK Biologicals
The Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S - FNRS) and the Télévie Programme
The Belgian Science Policy
The European Commission
The Erasme Fund The Wiener-Anspach Foundation
The Belgian Kid's Fund
The Roche Organ Transplantation Research Foundation
The Dimitris and Noela Nakos Foundation
Roche Pharmaceuticals, Belgium
Wittycell S.A.S