USE OF Brucella abortus AS A VECTOR FOR THE EXPRESSION OF HETEROLOGOUS ANTIGENS

SABIO Y GARCIA J; CARRICA M; FARBER M; BIGI F; CAMPOS E; CRAVERO S; ROSSETTI O

Bariloche, Argentina

Congreso; ARGENTINE SOCIETY FOR BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY XXXIX ANNUAL MEETING, BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY OF ARGENTINA XXXII ANNUAL MEETING, BARILOCHE PROTEIN SYMPOSIUM; 2003

Socidad argentina de investigaciones bioquimicas

Brucella abortus S19 and RB51 are attenuated strains used as live vaccines to control bovine brucellosis. Due to the strong cellular and humoral immune response that they elicit, they are particular attractive vectors for the delivery of heterologous antigens. The objective of the present study is to express antigens of veterinary pathogens that require for their control the same type of immune response elicited by Brucella. We have cloned esat-6 and cfp-10 of Mycobacteium bovis, rap-1 of Bavesia bovis and msp-1a of Anaplasma marginale into the replicative plasmid pBBR1MCS and evaluated their expression in Brucella abortus S19 and RB51. We have also cloned esat-6, cfp-10 and msp-1a under the control of bp26 promoter and in frame with its signal peptide in order to express the heterologous protein in the periplasmic space. Immune response against the heterologous antigens and against Brucella is at present being evaluated. We expect to obtain valuable information about the use of Brucella abortus as a vector for the expression of heterologous antigens.