A recombinant iron trnsport protein from Bordetella pertussis confers protection against Bodetella parapertussis

J. ALVAREZ HAYES, J OVIEDO, H. VALDEZ, J. LABORDE, F. MASCHI, M. AYALA, R. SHAH, M. FERNANDEZ AND M. E. RODRIGUEZ1.; J. ALVAREZ HAYES, J OVIEDO, H. VALDEZ, J. LABORDE, F. MASCHI, M. AYALA, R. SHAH, M. FERNANDEZ AND M. E. RODRIGUEZ1.

MICROBIOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2017 vol. XX p. 1 - 9

0385-5600

Whooping cough, which is caused by Bordetella pertussis and B. parapertussis, is a reemergingdisease. New protective antigens are needed to improve the efficacy of current vaccines againstboth species. Using proteomic tools, it was here found that B. parapertussis expresses a homologof AfuA, a previously reported new vaccine candidate against B. pertussis. It was found that thishomolog, named AfuABpp, is expressed during B. parapertussis infection, exposed on the surfaceof the bacteria and recognized by specific antibodies induced by the recombinant AfuA clonedfrom B. pertussis (rAfuA). Importantly, the presence of the O-antigen, a molecule that has beenfound to shield surface antigens on B. parapertussis, showed no influence on antibodyrecognition of AfuABpp on the bacterial surface. The present study further showed thatantibodies 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 antigenconfers protection against B. parapertussis infection in a mouse model. Altogether, these resultsindicate that AfuA is a good vaccine candidate for acellular vaccines protective against bothcausative agents of whooping cough.