1. ¹Division of Dermatology, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, California, USA
2. ²VA San Diego Healthcare Center, San Diego, California, USA
3. ³Moores Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego, California, USA

Correspondence: Dr Chun-Ming Huang, Division of Dermatology, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, Rm2317A, 3350 La Jolla Village, San Diego, CA 92161, USA. E-mail: chunming@ucsd.edu

Received 4 December 2007; Revised 3 March 2008; Accepted 19 March 2008; Published online 8 May 2008.

Abstract

Propionibacterium acnes is a key pathogen involved in the progression of inflammation in acne vulgaris. We examined whether vaccination against P. acnes suppressed P. acnes-induced skin inflammation. Inactivation of P. acnes with heat was employed to create a P. acnes-based vaccine. Intranasal immunization in mice with this inactivated vaccine provoked specific antibodies against P. acnes. Most notably, immunization with inactivated vaccines generated in vivo protective immunity against P. acnes challenge and facilitated the resolution of ear inflammation in mice. In addition, antibodies elicited by inactivated vaccines effectively neutralized the cytotoxicity of P. acnes and attenuated the production of proinflammatory cytokine IL-8 in human sebocyte SZ95 cells. Intranasal immunization using heat-inactivated P. acnes-based vaccines provided a simple modality to develop acne vaccines. These observations highlight the concept that development of vaccines targeting microbial products may represent an alternative strategy to conventional antibiotic therapy.