scholarly journals Construction and Characterization of a Pseudomonas aeruginosa Mucoid Exopolysaccharide-Alginate Conjugate Vaccine

2003 ◽  
Vol 71 (7) ◽  
pp. 3875-3884 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Theilacker ◽  
Fadie T. Coleman ◽  
Simone Mueschenborn ◽  
Nicolas Llosa ◽  
Martha Grout ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Deterioration of lung function in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) is closely associated with chronic pulmonary infection with mucoid Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The mucoid exopolysaccharide (MEP) from P. aeruginosa has been shown to induce opsonic antibodies in mice that are protective against this chronic infection. MEP-specific opsonic antibodies are also commonly found in the sera of older CF patients lacking detectable P. aeruginosa infection. When used in a human vaccine trial, however, MEP only minimally induced opsonic antibodies. To evaluate whether conjugation of MEP to a carrier protein could improve its immunogenicity, we bound thiolated MEP to keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) by using succinimidyl-4-(N-maleimidomethyl)cyclohexane-1-carboxylate (SMCC) as a linker. In contrast to the native MEP polymer, the MEP-KLH conjugate vaccine induced high titers of MEP-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) in C3H-HeN mice and in a rabbit. Sera from mice immunized with MEP-KLH conjugate, but not from animals immunized with comparable doses of native MEP, demonstrated opsonic killing activity. Vaccination with MEP-KLH conjugate induced opsonic antibodies broadly cross-reactive to heterologous mucoid strains of P. aeruginosa. Preexisting nonopsonic antibodies to MEP are found in normal human sera, including young CF patients, and their presence impedes the induction of opsonic antibodies. Induction of nonopsonic antibodies by either intraperitoneal injection of MEP or injection or feeding of the cross-reactive antigen, seaweed alginate, reduced the level of overall IgG elicited by follow-up immunization with the MEP-KLH conjugate. However, the opsonic activity was lower only in the sera of MEP-KLH conjugate-immunized mice with preexisting antibodies induced by MEP but not with antibodies induced by seaweed alginate. Immunization with MEP-KLH elicited a significant proportion of antibodies specific to epitopes involving O-acetate residues, and this subpopulation of antibodies mediated opsonic killing of mucoid P. aeruginosa in vitro. These results indicate that conjugation of MEP to KLH significantly enhances its immunogenicity and the elicitation of opsonic antibodies in mice and rabbits, that the conjugate induces opsonic antibodies in the presence of preexisting nonopsonic antibodies, and that opsonic antibodies to MEP are directed at epitopes that include acetate residues on the uronic acid polymer.

2005 ◽  
Vol 187 (3) ◽  
pp. 1192-1195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiromi Sato ◽  
Jimmy B. Feix ◽  
Cecilia J. Hillard ◽  
Dara W. Frank

ABSTRACT Recombinant ExoU (rExoU) and yeast extract were used to optimize an in vitro phospholipase assay as a basis for identifying the mechanism for enzyme activation and substrate specificity. Our results support a model in which a eukaryotic protein cofactor or complex facilitates the interaction of rExoU with phospholipid substrates.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jomkuan Theprungsirikul ◽  
Sladjana Skopelja-Gardner ◽  
Ashley S. Burns ◽  
Rachel M. Wierzbicki ◽  
William F. C. Rigby

Chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection mysteriously occurs in the airways of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), bronchiectasis (BE), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the absence of neutrophil dysfunction or neutropenia and is strongly associated with autoimmunity to bactericidal permeability-increasing protein (BPI). Here, we define a critical role for BPI in in vivo immunity against P. aeruginosa. Wild type and BPI-deficient (Bpi-/-) mice were infected with P. aeruginosa, and bacterial clearance, cell infiltrates, cytokine production, and in vivo phagocytosis were quantified. Bpi-/- mice exhibited a decreased ability to clear P. aeruginosa in vivo in concert with increased neutrophil counts and cytokine release. Bpi-/- neutrophils displayed decreased phagocytosis that was corrected by exogenous BPI in vitro. Exogenous BPI also enhanced clearance of P. aeruginosa in Bpi-/- mice in vivo by increasing P. aeruginosa uptake by neutrophils in a CD18-dependent manner. These data indicate that BPI plays an essential role in innate immunity against P. aeruginosa through its opsonic activity and suggest that perturbations in BPI levels or function may contribute to chronic lung infection with P. aeruginosa.


2008 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 970-973 ◽  
Author(s):  
David L. Goldman ◽  
WangYong Zeng ◽  
Johanna Rivera ◽  
Antonio Nakouzzi ◽  
Arturo Casadevall

ABSTRACT The role of innate immunity in the host response to Bacillus anthracis is poorly understood. We found that normal human serum contains an antitoxin mechanism that is capable of protecting macrophages in vitro from B. anthracis lethal toxin-mediated killing. This protective activity was limited to defined amounts of toxin and was lost by heat treatment or serum dilution. Some person-to-person variation in the protective activity of serum was noted, especially with higher concentrations of lethal toxin. A similar protective activity was found in murine serum, though human serum consistently neutralized more toxin than did murine serum. The protective activities of both murine and human sera correlated with cleavage of the protective antigen into two fragments with approximate molecular sizes of 20 and 50 kDa that were recognized by the monoclonal antibodies 7.5G and 10F4, respectively. This pattern of fragmentation is consistent with cleavage at multiple sites, including the furin-susceptible site. Cleavage was abolished by heat treatment and calcium chelation. These findings highlight a potential role for serum proteases in protection against the lethal toxin of B. anthracis.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonika Sharma ◽  
Sibnarayan Datta ◽  
Soumya Chatterjee ◽  
Moumita Dutta ◽  
Jhuma Samanta ◽  
...  

Abstract To treat antibiotic resistance bacteria, bacteriophage (also called 'phage') application has recently drawn considerable attention from researchers globally. Bacteria like Pseudomonas aeruginosa are known to be associated with nosocomial infections especially in patients with compromised immune systems. In the present work, phage against P. aeruginosa (named 'DRLP1') was isolated from wastewater, enriched and characterized. Morphologically DRLP1 belongs to the family Myoviridae with a high lytic ability. DRLP1 has a burst size of approximately 100 PFU/infected cells, a rapid adsorption time when supplemented with MgCl2, and has viability in a wide temperature range and pH. Genomic sequencing and bioinformatics analysis showed that the phage genome is linear double-stranded, 66,243 bp in length and have a GC content of 54.9%. the genome encodes 93 phage related ORFs open reading frames (ORFs). Phage stability in lyophilized state, adsorption study on sodium alginate beads, and in-vitro pathogen reduction assays were also investigated. Study carried out with artificially contaminated fomites suggests that this phage has the potential for application as a biological decontaminant agent against P. aeruginosa in different conditions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonika Sharma ◽  
Sibnarayan Datta ◽  
Soumya Chatterjee ◽  
Moumita Dutta ◽  
Jhuma Samanta ◽  
...  

AbstractIn recent years, the use of bacteriophages (or 'phages') against multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria including Pseudomonas aeruginosa has drawn considerable attention, globally. In this work, we report the isolation and detailed characterization of a highly lytic Pseudomonasphage DRL-P1 isolated from wastewater. Under TEM, DRL-P1 appeared as a member of the phage family Myoviridae. DRL-P1 featured rapid adsorption (~ 5 min), short-latency (~ 30 min), and large burst size (~ 100 PFU per infected cell). DRL-P1 can withstand a wide temperature range (4 °C to 40 °C) and pH (5.0 to 10.0) conditions. The 66,243 bp DRL-P1 genome (MN564818) encodes at least 93 ORFs, of which 36 were functionally annotated based on homology with similar phage proteins available in the databases. Comparative analyses of related genomes suggest an independent evolutionary history and discrete taxonomic position of DRL-P1 within genus Pbunavirus. No toxin or antibiotic resistance genes was identified. DRL-P1 is tolerant to lyophilization and encapsulation techniques and retained lytic activity even after 18 months of storage. We also demonstrated decontaminating potentials of DRL-P1 in vitro, on an artificially contaminated cover-slip model. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first Pbunavirus to be reported from India. Our study suggests DRL-P1 as a potential candidate for various applications.


2013 ◽  
Vol 57 (9) ◽  
pp. 4197-4207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew P. Tomaras ◽  
Jared L. Crandon ◽  
Craig J. McPherson ◽  
Mary Anne Banevicius ◽  
Steven M. Finegan ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTMultidrug resistance in Gram-negative bacteria has become so threatening to human health that new antibacterial platforms are desperately needed to combat these deadly infections. The concept of siderophore conjugation, which facilitates compound uptake across the outer membrane by hijacking bacterial iron acquisition systems, has received significant attention in recent years. While standardin vitroMIC and resistance frequency methods demonstrate that these compounds are potent, broad-spectrum antibacterial agents whose activity should not be threatened by unacceptably high spontaneous resistance rates, recapitulation of these results in animal models can prove unreliable, partially because of the differences in iron availability in these different methods. Here, we describe the characterization of MB-1, a novel siderophore-conjugated monobactam that demonstrates excellentin vitroactivity againstPseudomonas aeruginosawhen tested using standard assay conditions. Unfortunately, thein vitrofindings did not correlate with thein vivoresults we obtained, as multiple strains were not effectively treated by MB-1 despite having low MICs. To address this, we also describe the development of newin vitroassays that were predictive of efficacy in mouse models, and we provide evidence that competition with native siderophores could contribute to the recalcitrance of someP. aeruginosaisolatesin vivo.


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