Humoral Immunity to Enteric Viruses among Infants and Mothers in Bangladesh

Humoral Immunity to Enteric Viruses among Infants and Mothers in Bangladesh
Abstract
Diarrhea is a leading cause of death among children under five years of age worldwide. This problem
is particularly acute in low and middle income (LMIC) countries where access to clean water, vaccines
and medical care may be limited. Enteric human viruses, including adenovirus, astrovirus, norovirus,
rotavirus and sapovirus are major causes of diarrheal incidence, morbidity and mortality along with
bacteria and protozoa. Effective vaccines are needed for all of these viruses since the current rotavirus
vaccine is not highly effective in LMIC and there are no approved vaccines for other enteric human
viruses. Our primary goal is to discover specific antibody correlates of protection from infant viral
diarrhea caused by these five viruses. We hypothesize that the antigens we identify will be excellent
vaccine candidates for maternal and pediatric immunization. We will analyze the correlates of protection
from gastroenteritis among the enteric virus antibody specificities found in breast milk, maternal sera
and 18 week and one year old infant serum using an enteric virus protein microarray that we will
construct. The array will contain all proteins and protein fragments from the five most common viral
causes of diarrhea. The results will guide the development of vaccines against these important human
pathogens.

Grant Number: 5R21AI185887-02
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: DAVID CAMERINI