Chaperonin GroEL a Brucella immunodominant antigen identified using Nanobody and MALDI-TOF-MS technologies.

The deployment of today's antibodies that are able to distinguish Brucella from the closely similar pathogens, such as Yersinia, is still considered a great challenge since both pathogens share identical LPS (lipopolysaccharide) O-ring epitopes. In addition, because of the great impact of Brucella on health and economy in many countries including Syria, much effort is going to the development of next generation vaccines, mainly on the identification of new immunogenic proteins of this pathogen. In this context, Brucella-specific nanobodies (Nbs), camel genetic engineered heavy-chain antibody fragments, could be of great value. Previously, a large Nb library was constructed from a camel immunized with heat-killed Brucella. Phage display panning of this 'immune' library with Brucella total lysate resulted in a remarkable fast enrichment for a Nb referred to as NbBruc02. In the present work, we investigated the main characteristics of this Nb that can efficiently distinguish under well-defined conditions the Brucella from other bacteria including Yersinia. NbBruc02 showed a strong and specific interaction with its antigen within the crude lysate as tested by a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor and it was also able to pull down its cognate antigen from such lysate by immuno-capturing. Using matrix assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS), NbBruc02 specific antigen was identified as chaperonin GroEL, also known as heat shock protein of 60 kDa (HSP-60), which represents a Brucella immunodominant antigen responsible of maintaining proteins folding during stress conditions. Interestingly, the antigen recognition by NbBruc02 was found to be affected by the state of GroEL folding. Thus, the Nb technology applied in the field of infectious diseases, e.g. brucellosis, yields two outcomes: (1) it generates specific binders that can be used for diagnosis, and perhaps treatment, and (2) it identifies the immunogenic candidate antigens for developing vaccines.