Vibrio cholerae O1 Infection Induces Proinflammatory CD4⁺T-Cell Responses in Blood and Intestinal Mucosa of Infected Humans

Vibrio cholerae O1 is a noninvasive enteric pathogen and serves as a model for studies of mucosal immunity. Although symptomatic V. cholerae infection induces durable protection against subsequent disease, vaccination with oral killed whole-cell V. cholerae stimulates less long-lasting protection against cholera. In this study, we demonstrated that cholera induces an early proinflammatory cellular immune response that results in priming of Th1- and Th17-type cytokine responses to ex vivo antigenic stimulation and an increase in the ratio of Th1 to Th2 CD4(+) T-cell responses. Comparable priming of Th1 and Th17 responses, with an increased ratio of Th1 to Th2 CD4(+) T-cell responses, was not observed in subjects who received two doses of the oral cholera vaccine Dukoral (a whole-cell cholera…