Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, 388 Yuhangtang Road, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, PR China.
Vaccine. 2009 Dec 10;28(1):243-55. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2009.09.089. Epub 2009 Sep 29.
Leptospirosis, caused by different Leptospira species, is one of the most widespread zoonotic infections worldwide. Here we expressed three major leptospiral lipoproteins and examined their immunogenicity. All the pathogenic Leptospira strains tested possess the lipL21, lipL32 and lipL41 genes, but the latter two can be further divided into different gene types (lipL32-1, lipL32-2, lipL41-1, lipL41-2). Microscopic agglutination test revealed that rLipLs antisera had extensive cross-immunoagglutination among the 178 leptospiral strains in which rLipL32-1 contributed the highest agglutination titer. The rLipLs-based ELISAs established in this study demonstrated that in the sera of 385 leptospirosis patients infected with different serovars of Leptospira interrogans, rLipL32-1 had the highest positive rates for IgG and IgM (89.4-98.7%), followed by the IgG/IgM positive rates of rLipL21 (87.0-96.1%) and rLipL32-2 (86.5-96.9%), while the two rLipL41s presented the lowest IgG/IgM positive rates (69.9-83.9%). The immunoprotective levels in guinea pigs of rLipL32-1 (58.3% and 66.7%) were the highest, compared to those of the other rLipLs (25.0-58.3%). Multiple different rLipLs would increase immunoprotective levels (from 58.3% and 66.7% to 83.3% and 91.7%). The data suggest that all the rLipLs are the genus-specific superficial antigens of pathogenic Leptospira species and should be considered in designing universal vaccines against leptospirosis.
钩端螺旋体病是由不同的钩端螺旋体引起的，是全球最广泛流行的人畜共患病之一。在这里，我们表达了三种主要的钩端螺旋体脂蛋白，并研究了它们的免疫原性。所有测试的致病性钩端螺旋体菌株都具有 lipL21、lipL32 和 lipL41 基因，但后两者可以进一步分为不同的基因类型（lipL32-1、lipL32-2、lipL41-1、lipL41-2）。显微镜凝集试验显示，rLipLs 抗血清在 178 株钩端螺旋体菌株中具有广泛的交叉免疫凝集作用，其中 rLipL32-1 贡献了最高的凝集效价。本研究建立的 rLipLs ELISA 显示，在感染不同血清型问号钩端螺旋体的 385 例钩端螺旋体病患者血清中，rLipL32-1 的 IgG 和 IgM 阳性率最高（89.4-98.7%），其次是 rLipL21 的 IgG/IgM 阳性率（87.0-96.1%）和 rLipL32-2 的 IgG/IgM 阳性率（86.5-96.9%），而两种 rLipL41s 的 IgG/IgM 阳性率最低（69.9-83.9%）。rLipL32-1 在豚鼠中的免疫保护水平（58.3%和 66.7%）最高，而其他 rLipLs 的免疫保护水平（25.0-58.3%）较低。多种不同的 rLipLs 可提高免疫保护水平（从 58.3%和 66.7%提高到 83.3%和 91.7%）。数据表明，所有 rLipLs 都是致病性钩端螺旋体属特异性的表面抗原，在设计针对钩端螺旋体病的通用疫苗时应加以考虑。
