School of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
Vaccine. 2011 Oct 26;29(46):8250-6. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2011.08.113. Epub 2011 Sep 9.
Streptococcus pyogenes infections remain a health problem in several countries because of post-streptococcal sequelae, such as rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease. We developed a vaccine epitope (StreptInCor) composed of 55 amino acid residues of the C-terminal portion of the M protein that encompasses both T and B cell protective epitopes. Recently, by using human blood samples, we showed that the StreptInCor epitope is able to bind to different HLA class II molecules and that it could be considered a universal vaccine epitope. In the present work, we evaluated the immune response of HLA class II transgenic mice against aluminum hydroxide-absorbed StreptInCor. After a period of one year, several organs were analyzed histologically to verify the safety of the candidate vaccine epitope. Our results showed that StreptInCor is able to induce robust and safe and long lasting immune response without deleterious reactions in several organs. In conclusion, the results presented here indicate that StreptInCor could be considered a safe vaccine against severe streptococcus-induced diseases.
化脓链球菌感染仍然是一些国家的健康问题，因为其会导致链球菌后后遗症，如风湿热和风湿性心脏病。我们开发了一种疫苗表位（StreptInCor），由 M 蛋白 C 末端的 55 个氨基酸残基组成，包含 T 和 B 细胞保护性表位。最近，我们使用人类血液样本表明，StreptInCor 表位能够与不同的 HLA Ⅱ类分子结合，因此可以被认为是一种通用的疫苗表位。在本工作中，我们评估了 HLA Ⅱ类转基因小鼠对氢氧化铝吸附的 StreptInCor 的免疫反应。经过一年的时间，对多个器官进行了组织学分析，以验证候选疫苗表位的安全性。我们的结果表明，StreptInCor 能够诱导强大、安全且持久的免疫反应，而不会在多个器官中引起有害反应。总之，这里呈现的结果表明，StreptInCor 可被视为一种安全的疫苗，可预防严重链球菌引起的疾病。
