Lanfermann Christian, Kohn Martin, Laudeley Robert, Rheinheimer Claudia, Klos Andreas
Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hospital Epidemiology, Medical School Hannover, 30625 Hannover, Germany.
Vaccines (Basel). 2021 Aug 6;9(8):871. doi: 10.3390/vaccines9080871.
causes most bacterial sexually transmitted diseases worldwide. Different major outer membrane proteins (MOMPs) define various serovars of this intracellular pathogen: In women, D to L3 can cause urethritis, cervicitis, salpingitis, and oophoritis, and, thus, infertility. Protective immunity might be serovar-specific since chlamydial infection does not appear to induce an effective acquired immunity and reinfections occur. A better understanding of induced cross-serovar protection is essential for the selection of suitable antigens in vaccine development. In our mouse lung infection screening model, we evaluated the urogenital serovars D, E, and L2 in this regard. Seven weeks after primary infection or mock-infection, respectively, mice were infected a second time with the identical or one of the other serovars. Body weight and clinical score were monitored for 7 days. Near the peak of the second lung infection, bacterial load, myeloperoxidase, IFN-γ, and TNF-α in lung homogenate, as well as chlamydia-specific IgG levels in blood were determined. Surprisingly, compared with mice that were infected then for the first time, almost independent of the serovar combination used, all acquired parameters of disease were similarly diminished. Our reinfection study suggests that efficient cross-serovar protection could be achieved by a vaccine combining chlamydial antigens that do not include nonconserved MOMP regions.
在全球范围内引发大多数细菌性性传播疾病。不同的主要外膜蛋白（MOMPs）定义了这种细胞内病原体的各种血清型：在女性中，D至L3血清型可引起尿道炎、宫颈炎、输卵管炎和卵巢炎，进而导致不孕。由于衣原体感染似乎不会诱导有效的获得性免疫且会发生再次感染，保护性免疫可能具有血清型特异性。更好地理解诱导的交叉血清型保护对于疫苗开发中合适抗原的选择至关重要。在我们的小鼠肺部感染筛选模型中，我们在这方面评估了泌尿生殖系统血清型D、E和L2。分别在初次感染或假感染7周后，小鼠再次感染相同血清型或其他血清型之一。监测体重和临床评分7天。在第二次肺部感染高峰期附近，测定肺匀浆中的细菌载量、髓过氧化物酶、IFN-γ和TNF-α，以及血液中的衣原体特异性IgG水平。令人惊讶的是，与首次感染的小鼠相比，几乎与所用的血清型组合无关，所有获得的疾病参数都同样降低。我们的再次感染研究表明，通过组合不包括非保守MOMP区域的衣原体抗原的疫苗可以实现有效的交叉血清型保护。
