Department of Physiology and Immunology, Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona, Av. Diagonal 643, 3rd floor, Barcelona 08028, Spain.
Vaccines (Basel). 2015 Jul 24;3(3):579-96. doi: 10.3390/vaccines3030579.
Cholera toxin subunit B (CTB) is the nontoxic portion of cholera toxin. Its affinity to the monosialotetrahexosylganglioside (GM1) that is broadly distributed in a variety of cell types including epithelial cells of the gut and antigen presenting cells, macrophages, dendritic cells, and B cells, allows its optimal access to the immune system. CTB can easily be expressed on its own in a variety of organisms, and several approaches can be used to couple it to antigens, either by genetic fusion or by chemical manipulation, leading to strongly enhanced immune responses to the antigens. In autoimmune diseases, CTB has the capacity to evoke regulatory responses and to thereby dampen autoimmune responses, in several but not all animal models. It remains to be seen whether the latter approach translates to success in the clinic, however, the versatility of CTB to manipulate immune responses in either direction makes this protein a promising adjuvant for vaccine development.
霍乱毒素亚单位 B（CTB）是霍乱毒素的无毒部分。它与广泛分布于各种细胞类型（包括肠道上皮细胞和抗原呈递细胞、巨噬细胞、树突状细胞和 B 细胞）的单涎酸四己糖神经节苷脂（GM1）具有亲和力，使其能够最佳地进入免疫系统。CTB 可以很容易地在各种生物体中单独表达，并且可以使用多种方法将其与抗原偶联，无论是通过遗传融合还是通过化学修饰，从而导致对抗原的强烈增强的免疫反应。在自身免疫性疾病中，CTB 具有引发调节性反应的能力，从而在几种但不是所有动物模型中减弱自身免疫反应。然而，尚不清楚后者的方法是否会在临床上取得成功，但是，CTB 具有操纵免疫反应的多功能性使得这种蛋白质成为疫苗开发有前途的佐剂。
