Immunization of mice with recombinant protein CobB or AsnC confers protection against Brucella abortus infection

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 7; no. 2; p. e29552
• Main Authors: Fu, Simei, Xu, Jie, Li, Xianbo, Xie, Yongfei, Qiu, Yefeng, Du, Xinying, Yu, Shuang, Bai, Yaoxia, Chen, Yanfen, Wang, Tongkun, Wang, Zhoujia, Yu, Yaqing, Peng, Guangneng, Huang, Kehe, Huang, Liuyu, Wang, Yufei, Chen, Zeliang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 24.02.2012; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Amino acids; Analysis; Animals; Antibodies; Antigenic determinants; Antigens; Antigens, Bacterial - immunology; AsnC protein; Biological response modifiers; Biology; Brucella abortus; Brucella abortus - metabolism; Brucella Vaccine - immunology; Brucellosis; Brucellosis - immunology; Brucellosis - prevention & control; Disease control; Disease prevention; Education; Enzymes; Epitopes; Escherichia coli Proteins - metabolism; Female; Health aspects; Identification; Immune System; Immunity; Immunization; Immunogenicity; Infection; Infections; Infectious diseases; Interferon; Interferon-gamma - metabolism; Laboratories; Lymphocytes B; Lymphocytes T; Medical research; Medicine; Metabolism; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Mycobacterium avium; Mycobacterium tuberculosis; Pathogenesis; Protective antigen; Proteins; Proteomics; Public health; Recombinant proteins; Recombinant Proteins - metabolism; Science; Sirtuins - metabolism; Spleen - cytology; Splenocytes; Superoxide Dismutase - metabolism; T cells; T-Lymphocytes - metabolism; T-Lymphocytes - microbiology; Trans-Activators - metabolism; Tuberculosis; Vaccines; Veterinary colleges; Veterinary medicine; Veterinary Science; Virulence (Microbiology); Yersinia pestis; Zinc; Zoonoses; γ-Interferon; Beijing China; China
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0029552

Due to drawbacks of live attenuated vaccines, much more attention has been focused on screening of Brucella protective antigens as subunit vaccine candidates. Brucella is a facultative intracellular bacterium and cell mediated immunity plays essential roles for protection against Brucella infection. Identification of Brucella antigens that present T-cell epitopes to the host could enable development of such vaccines. In this study, 45 proven or putative pathogenesis-associated factors of Brucella were selected according to currently available data. After expressed and purified, 35 proteins were qualified for analysis of their abilities to stimulate T-cell responses in vitro. Then, an in vitro gamma interferon (IFN-γ) assay was used to identify potential T-cell antigens from B. abortus. In total, 7 individual proteins that stimulated strong IFN-γ responses in splenocytes from mice immunized with B. abortus live vaccine S19 were identified. The protective efficiencies of these 7 recombinant proteins were further evaluated. Mice given BAB1_1316 (CobB) or BAB1_1688 (AsnC) plus adjuvant could provide protection against virulent B. abortus infection, similarly with the known protective antigen Cu-Zn SOD and the license vaccine S19. In addition, CobB and AsnC could induce strong antibodies responses in BALB/c mice. Altogether, the present study showed that CobB or AsnC protein could be useful antigen candidates for the development of subunit vaccines against brucellosis with adequate immunogenicity and protection efficacy.