PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Bikul Das
AU  - Lekhika Pathak
AU  - Sukanya Gayan
AU  - Bidisha Pal
AU  - Parthajyoti Saikia
AU  - Tutumoni Baishya
AU  - Nihar Ranjan Das
AU  - Rupam Das
AU  - Mallika Maral
AU  - Ranjit Mahanta
AU  - Seema Bhuyan
AU  - Pratibha Gautam
AU  - Joyeeta Talukdar
AU  - Sorra Sandhya
AU  - Deepjyoti Kalita
AU  - Vijay Swami
AU  - Krishna Ram Das
AU  - Dayal Krishna Bora
AU  - Jagat Ghora
AU  - Ista Pulu
TI  - Stem cell basis of a host driven transmission of antigen packed aerosols: a novel mechanism of natural vaccination for tuberculosis
AID  - 10.1101/2020.11.14.382572
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.11.14.382572
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/11/16/2020.11.14.382572.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/11/16/2020.11.14.382572.full
AB  - Natural vaccination against pathogens are known to be achieved by herd-immunity i.e. infected human host provide immunity to the community by spreading the pathogen. Whether, infected human hosts transmit vesicle packed aerosols of pathogen’s antigen for natural vaccination of the community has not yet been considered. We have explored a traditional healing method of aerosol-inoculation against small pox and tuberculosis in the Sualkuchi-Hajo cultural complex of Kamarupa, an ancient Indian region known for tantra-based healing and spirituality. In the aerosol-inoculation method against TB, selected persons with TB (later identified as smear negative TB subject) are encouraged to spread good nigudah in the community by Kirtan chanting; the good Nigudah are thought to be present within bad-nigudah or invisible krimis (tiny flesh eating living being mentioned in ancient India’s medicinal text Caraka Samhita and Atharva Veda). A 15-years of contact TB investigation study, as well as laboratory study of aerosol obtained from smear negative PTB (SN-PTB) subjects led to the identification of good Nigudah as extracellular vesicles (EVs) filled with Mtb-antigen ESAT-6. We then developed a mouse model of aerosol-inoculation using SN-PTB subject derived aerosol EVs, and identified Mtb infected mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) of the lung as the putative source of the ESAT-6+ EVs. These Mtb infected MSCs reprogram to altruistic stem cell (ASC) phenotype, which then secrete ESAT-6+ EVs to the aerosols; healthy mice receiving the aerosol develop Mtb specific herd immunity. These results expedite our ongoing work on the innate defense mechanism of ASCs against pathogen, and provide a novel mechanism of natural vaccination, where the host extracts appropriate antigens from a pathogen, and then spread it in the community via aerosols.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.SN-PTBsmear-negative Pulmonary tuberculosisAESN-PTBAerosol derived extracellular vesicles of smear negative PTB subjectSP-PTBsmear positive pulmonary tuberculosisFGDfocused group discussionJUTJiva Upakar Tantra (Vedic Altruism)