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  • Title: A Forum guide to mucosal immunization.
    Journal: CVI Forum; 1994 Apr; (6):2-3. PubMed ID: 12321776.
    Abstract:
    Human mucosal tissues line the body's passages and cavities, such as the gastrointestinal, respiratory, and urogenital tracts, the nasal passages, the middle and inner ear, and the eyes, where they facilitate the passage into the bloodstream of essential molecules, such as nutrients, and prevent the passage of harmful substances, such as disease-causing organisms. Mucosal immunization is the administration of a vaccine which enters the body through the mucosal membrane. Such vaccines exist for only poliomyelitis, cholera, and typhoid fever. Mucosal vaccines are a Children's Vaccine Initiative priority because of their ease of administration, their ability to block pathogens before they pass the mucosa, the possibility of using the mucosa's enormous untapped immune system, and that such immunization will provide strong and lasting protection against infection. For now, however, mucosal vaccines must be given in much larger quantities than injected vaccines to confer the same degree of protective immunity, second or third doses are usually needed, mucosal immunity tends to fade more quickly than systemic immunity, and oral vaccines must withstand the stomach's destructive digestive juices. Researchers believe that diarrheal diseases, acute respiratory diseases, and sexually transmitted diseases could be prevented through immunization with mucosal vaccines. How mucosal immunity functions and the body sites potentially protected by such vaccines are described.
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