OMP19 PLAYS A KEY ROLE IN Brucella abortus´s ABILITY TO ESTABLISH CHRONIC INFECTION AFTER ORAL INGESTION

CARABAJAL, MARIANELA; KARINA ALEJANDRA PASQUEVICH; GUAIMAS, FRANCISCO; LAURA BRUNO; GABRIELA RISSO; DIEGO REY SERANTES; DIEGO COMERCI; JULIANA CASSATARO

Congreso; Reunión Conjunta de Sociedades de Biociencias; 2017; 2017

Sociedades Biocientíficas. Sociedad Argentina de Inmunología.

Oral infection is one of the principal ways in which brucellosis is acquired. Animals usually sniff and lick fetal and placental tissues from abortions caused by brucella. Transmission of brucellosis to humans may occur by consumption of infected, unpasteurized animal milk products. We have previously demonstrated that U-Omp19from Brucella spp. is a broad-spectrum protease inhibitor: inhibits main gastrointestinal and lysosomal proteases; moreover, Omp19 has a role in B. abortus virulence after intragastric ?gavage- infection. In this work, the role of Omp19 in B. abortus oral infection was studied in depth. In this case BALB/c mice were directly inoculated at the oral cavity with wt or a mutant B. abortus strain without Omp19 (Δomp19). At 20 days post infection there were very few colonies of Δomp19 strain at the spleens indicating this strain was highly attenuated (P