ABSTRACT
Group B Streptococcus (GBS) type III capsular polysaccharide (CPS III) was conjugated to recombinant cholera toxin B subunit (rCTB) using three different methods which employed (i) cystamine and N-succinimidyl-3-(2-pyridyldithio)propionate (SPDP), (ii) carbodiimide with adipic acid dihydrazide (ADH) as a spacer, or (iii) reductive amination (RA). The CPS III-rCTB conjugates were divided into large- and small-molecular-weight (M
r) fractions, and the immunogenicities of the different preparations after intranasal (i.n.) immunization were studied in mice. Both large- and small-M
rconjugates of CPS III-rCTBRA or CPS III-rCTBADHinduced high, almost comparable levels of CPS-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) in serum, lungs, and vagina that were generally superior to those obtained with CPS III-rCTBSPDP conjugates or a CPS III and rCTB mixture. However, the smaller-M
rconjugates of CPS III-rCTBRA or CPS III-rCTBADHin most cases elicited a lower anti-CPS IgA immune response than the large-M
r conjugates, and the highest anti-CPS IgA titers in both tissues and serum were obtained with the large-M
r CPS III-rCTBRA conjugate. Serum IgG anti-CPS titers induced by the CPS III-rCTBRAconjugate had high levels of specific IgG1, IgG2a, IgG2b, and IgG3 antibodies. Based on the effectiveness of RA for coupling CPS III to rCTB, RA was also tested for conjugating GBS CPS Ia with rCTB. As for the CPS III-rCTB conjugates, the immunogenicity of CPS Ia was greatly increased by conjugation to rCTB. Intranasal immunization with a combination of CPS Ia-rCTB and CPS III-rCTB conjugates was shown to induce anti-CPS Ia and III immune responses in serum and lungs that were fully comparable with the responses to immunization with the monovalent CPS Ia-rCTB or CPS III-rCTB conjugates. These results suggest that the GBS CPS III-rCTB and CPS Ia-rCTB conjugates prepared by the RA method may be used in bivalent and possibly also in multivalent mucosal GBS conjugate vaccines.
Intranasal Immunization of Mice with Group B Streptococcal Protein Rib and Cholera Toxin B Subunit Confers Protection against Lethal Infection
