Tracking the pathway to immunity, one cell at a time

Plasma B-cell making antibody: Shutterstock

Why do some vaccines create long-lived responses and others don't? Monash immunology researchers Dr Marcus Robinson and Professor David Tarlinton are leading a team which is teasing out some answers.

Vaccines work their magic by effectively creating immune cells that are long-lived, often for over decades. These immune cells create both a protective barrier that can prevent or minimize re-infection and a memory that allows us to recognize an old invader like a virus and to kill it before it causes disease. The antibody making the barrier in our blood is itself made by long-lived plasma cells. While the importance of these cells has always been known, how and when they are generated following a vaccination has remained a mystery.

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Long-lived plasma cells are key to an effective vaccine

A plasma cell, situated in its survival niche, produces Y shaped antibodies.
Long-lived plasma cells are needed for successful vaccines as they can
produce anti-virus antibodies for decades. Image: Tarlinton lab

Long-lived plasma cells are needed for successful vaccines as they can produce anti-virus antibodies for decades. A recent study by Monash University immunologists is unpacking the factors contributing to successful survival of plasma cells.

In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, a lot of research is focused on developing a vaccine.  For a vaccine to be successful, it has to do two things. First, it must signal the body to generate a lot of plasma cells to make anti-virus antibodies. Second, these plasma cells have to live for years or even decades for the vaccination to work. However, the reality is that most of them only survive a few days.

Allergy research to fathom causes of enigmatic diseases

Dr Marcus Robinson

by Anne Crawford

Australia has among the highest allergy rates in the world – and it’s rising. According to the National Allergy Strategy, life-threatening food allergy rates have doubled in ten years and allergy deaths have increased by 42% over six years.

Immunoglobulin E (IgE), antibody produced by the immune system, is a key driver of allergic responses.

Research by Monash Research Fellow Dr Marcus Robinson, funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), will drill deep to identify the sources of IgE in chronic allergic diseases. “We will combine disease-relevant allergy models and new reporter mice to work out when IgE-producing cells develop, how they develop, and how their lifespan affects the persistence of allergic responses,” Dr Robinson said.