Immune activation at effector and gene expression levels after measles vaccination in healthy individuals: A pilot study

Cellular immunity to measles vaccination is not fully understood at the effector response and gene expression levels. We enrolled 15 healthy individuals (15-25 years old) previously vaccinated with two doses of measles-mumps- rubella-II vaccine to characterize their cellular immunity. We detected a spectrum of lymphoproliferative response (median stimulation indices of 3.4), low precursor frequencies of interferon-γ (median 0.11%) and interleukin-4 (median 0.05%) by Elispot, and cosecretion of Th1 and Th2 cytokines after measles virus stimulation. Further, global gene expression was examined in five subjects from this cohort after vaccination with an additional dose of measles vaccine (Attenuax, Merck) to identify the genes involved in measles immunity. Linear mixed effect models were used to identify genes significantly up or downregulated in vivo between baseline and Days 7 and 14 after measles vaccination. Measles vaccination induced upregulation of a set of 80 genes, which play a role in measles immunity, signal transduction, apoptosis, cell proliferation, and metabolic pathways. Among the 34 genes that were downregulated, only interferon-α is known to have a direct role in measles immunity. This study suggests that measles vaccination leads to activation of multiple cellular mechanisms that can override the immunosuppressant effects of the measles virus and induce immunity.