Delta-pgm, a new live-attenuated vaccine against Brucella suis

CZIBENER C; DEL GIUDICE MG; SPERA JM; FULGENZI FR; UGALDE JE

VACCINE

ELSEVIER SCI LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2016 vol. 34 p. 1524 - 1530

0264-410X

Brucellosis is one of the most widespread zoonosis in the world affecting many domestic and wild animalsincluding bovines, goats, pigs and dogs. Each species of the Brucella genus has a particular tropism towarddifferent mammals being the most relevant for human health Brucella abortus, Brucella melitensis andBrucella suis that infect bovines, goats/camelids and swine respectively. Although for B. abortus and B.melitensis there are vaccines available, there is no efficient vaccine to protect swine from B. suis infectionso far. We describe here the construction of a novel vaccine strain that confers excellent protectionagainst B. suis in a mouse model of infection. This strain is a clean deletion of the phosphoglucomutase(pgm) gene that codes for a protein that catalyzes the conversion of glucose-6-P to glucose-1-P, which isused as a precursor for the biosynthesis of many polysaccharides. The Delta-pgm strain lacks a completelipopolysaccharide, is unable to synthesize cyclic beta glucans and is sensitive to several detergents andPolymyxin B. We show that this strain replicates in cultured cells, is completely avirulent in the mousemodel of infection but protects against a challenge of the virulent strain inducing the production ofpro-inflammatory cytokines. This novel strain could be an excellent candidate for the control of swinebrucellosis, a disease of emerging concern in many parts of the world.