Li Bei, Du Chunhong, Zhou Lei, Bi Yujing, Wang Xiaoyi, Wen Li, Guo Zhaobiao, Song Zhizhong, Yang Ruifu
Institute of Biomedicine, Taihe Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan, Hubei Province, China.
Clin Vaccine Immunol. 2012 Feb;19(2):228-34. doi: 10.1128/CVI.05559-11. Epub 2011 Dec 21.
Plague is one of the most dangerous diseases and is caused by Yersinia pestis. Effective vaccine development requires understanding of immune protective mechanisms against the bacterium in humans. In this study, the humoral and memory cellular immune responses in plague patients (n = 65) recovered from Y. pestis infection during the past 16 years were investigated using a protein microarray and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot assay (ELISpot). The seroprevalence to the F1 antigen in all recovered patients is 78.5%. In patients infected more than a decade ago, the antibody-positive rate still remains 69.5%. There is no difference in the antibody presence between gender, age, and infected years, but it seems to be associated with the F1 antibody titers during infection (r = 0.821; P < 0.05). Except F1 antibody, the antibodies against LcrV and YopD were detected in most of the patients, suggesting they could be the potential diagnostic markers for detecting the infection of F1-negative strains. Regarding cellular immunity, the cell number producing gamma interferon (IFN-γ), stimulated by F1 and LcrV, respectively, in vitro to the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of 7 plague patients and 4 negative controls, showed no significant difference, indicating F1 and LcrV are not dominant T cell antigens against plague for a longer time in humans. Our findings have direct implications for the future design and development of effective vaccines against Y. pestis infection and the development of new target-based diagnostics.
鼠疫是最危险的疾病之一，由鼠疫耶尔森菌引起。有效的疫苗研发需要了解人类针对该细菌的免疫保护机制。在本研究中，使用蛋白质微阵列和酶联免疫斑点测定法（ELISpot），对过去16年中从鼠疫耶尔森菌感染中康复的鼠疫患者（n = 65）的体液免疫和记忆细胞免疫反应进行了调查。所有康复患者中F1抗原的血清阳性率为78.5%。在十多年前感染的患者中，抗体阳性率仍为69.5%。抗体的存在在性别、年龄和感染年份之间没有差异，但似乎与感染期间的F1抗体滴度有关（r = 0.821；P < 0.05）。除F1抗体外，大多数患者还检测到了针对LcrV和YopD的抗体，这表明它们可能是检测F1阴性菌株感染的潜在诊断标志物。关于细胞免疫，分别用F1和LcrV体外刺激7例鼠疫患者和4例阴性对照的外周血单个核细胞后，产生γ干扰素（IFN-γ）的细胞数量没有显著差异，这表明在人类中，F1和LcrV在较长时间内不是针对鼠疫的主要T细胞抗原。我们的研究结果对未来针对鼠疫耶尔森菌感染的有效疫苗的设计和开发以及基于新靶点的诊断方法的开发具有直接意义。
