Alvarez Hayes Jimena, Oviedo Juan Marcos, Valdez Hugo, Laborde Juan Martín, Maschi Fabricio, Ayala Miguel, Shah Rohan, Fernandez Lahore Marcelo, Rodriguez Maria Eugenia
CINDEFI (UNLP CONICET La Plata), School of Sciences, University of La Plata, La Plata, Argentina.
Laboratory of Experimental Animals. School of Veterinary Sciences, University of La Plata, La Plata, Argentina.
Microbiol Immunol. 2017 Oct;61(10):407-415. doi: 10.1111/1348-0421.12532. Epub 2017 Sep 26.
Whooping cough, which is caused by Bordetella pertussis and B. parapertussis, is a reemerging disease. New protective antigens are needed to improve the efficacy of current vaccines against both species. Using proteomic tools, it was here found that B. parapertussis expresses a homolog of AfuA, a previously reported new vaccine candidate against B. pertussis. It was found that this homolog, named AfuA , is expressed during B. parapertussis infection, exposed on the surface of the bacteria and recognized by specific antibodies induced by the recombinant AfuA cloned from B. pertussis (rAfuA). Importantly, the presence of the O-antigen, a molecule that has been found to shield surface antigens on B. parapertussis, showed no influence on antibody recognition of AfuA on the bacterial surface. The present study further showed that antibodies induced by immunization with the recombinant protein were able to opsonize B. parapertussis and promote bacterial uptake by neutrophils. Finally, it was shown that this antigen confers protection against B. parapertussis infection in a mouse model. Altogether, these results indicate that AfuA is a good vaccine candidate for acellular vaccines protective against both causative agents of whooping cough.
百日咳是由百日咳博德特氏菌和副百日咳博德特氏菌引起的一种再度出现的疾病。需要新的保护性抗原以提高当前疫苗针对这两种细菌的效力。利用蛋白质组学工具，在此发现副百日咳博德特氏菌表达AfuA的一个同源物，AfuA是先前报道的一种针对百日咳博德特氏菌的新型疫苗候选物。发现这个名为AfuA 的同源物在副百日咳博德特氏菌感染期间表达，暴露于细菌表面，并被从百日咳博德特氏菌克隆的重组AfuA（rAfuA）诱导产生的特异性抗体所识别。重要的是，已发现能屏蔽副百日咳博德特氏菌表面抗原的O抗原的存在，对细菌表面AfuA的抗体识别没有影响。本研究进一步表明，用重组蛋白免疫诱导产生的抗体能够调理副百日咳博德特氏菌并促进中性粒细胞对细菌的摄取。最后，结果表明这种抗原在小鼠模型中能提供针对副百日咳博德特氏菌感染的保护作用。总之，这些结果表明AfuA是一种用于无细胞疫苗的良好疫苗候选物，可预防百日咳的两种致病因子。
