Abstract

Campylobacter-associated enteric disease is estimated to be responsible for more than 160 million cases of gastroenteritis each year and is linked to growth stunting of infants living under conditions of poor sanitation and hygiene. Here, we examine naturally occurring Campylobacter-associated diarrhea among rhesus macaques as a model to determine if vaccination could reduce severe diarrheal disease and infant growth stunting. Compared to unvaccinated controls, there are no Campylobacter diarrhea-associated deaths observed among vaccinated infant macaques and all-cause diarrhea-associated infant mortality is decreased by 76% (P = 0.03). By 9 months of age, there is a 1.3 cm increase in dorsal length that equaled a significant 1.28 LAZ (Length-for-Age Z score) improvement in linear growth among vaccinated infants compared to their unvaccinated counterparts (P = 0.001). In this work, we show that Campylobacter vaccination not only reduces diarrheal disease but also potentially serves as an effective intervention that improves infant growth trajectories.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2023

Notes/Citation Information

© The Author(s) 2023

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39433-1

Funding Information

We thank David Erikson and the ONPRC Endocrine Technologies Support Core (ETSC) at the Oregon National Primate Research Center for performing LC-MS/MS assays to measure serum tryptophan and kynurenine levels and Michelle Pounder for performing diagnostic microbial cultures at the ONPRC Clinical Pathology Laboratory. This work was supported, in whole or in part, by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation [OPP1149233]. Under the grant conditions of the Foundation, a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License has already been assigned to the Author Accepted Manuscript version that might arise from this submission. This work was also supported by US National Institute of Health grant P51 OD011092 for operation of the ONPRC. N.S.R. was supported by NIH T32 AI007319.

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