1887

Microbiology Society logo

Volume 139, Issue 12

Partial protection against genital reinfection by immunization of guinea-pigs with isolated outer-membrane proteins of the chlamydial agent of guinea-pig inclusion conjunctivitis Free

Abstract

Because partial protection against reinfection is induced by experimental infection in the guinea-pig model of genital chlamydial infection, we sought to induce immunity by immunization. Female guinea-pigs were immunized subcutaneously with the major outer-membrane protein (MOMP) and the 61 kDa cysteine-rich outer-membrane protein (61 kDa) of the agent of guinea-pig inclusion conjunctivitis (GPIC) eluted from SDS-polyacrylamide gels (SDS-MOMP, SDS-61 kDa). Post-immunization sera and secretions contained antibodies to the SDS-purified proteins at high titre as measured by immunoblotting, whereas enzyme immunoassays (EIA) using whole elementary bodies as antigen showed significantly lower titres ( < 0·001). Likewise, blastogenic responses of peripheral mononuclear cells to GPIC elementary bodies were weak. Animals immunized with SDS-MOMP and SDS-61 kDa were fully susceptible to intravaginal challenge, as were control animals immunized with buffer without protein. Another group of animals were immunized with material prepared by extraction of chlamydial outer-membrane complexes with octyl --glucopyranoside (OGP) and dithiothreitol, which consisted largely of MOMP (OGP-MOMP). In contrast to the SDS-MOMP group, sera and secretions in the OGP-MOMP group showed high titres in EIA, and high titre antibodies to MOMP by immunoblot; however, most animals also had antibodies to 61 kDa, 72 kDa and ca. 84 kDa outer-membrane proteins. OGP-MOMP animals were partially protected against genital challenge as evidenced by low inclusion scores compared to control animals, although duration of infection measured by culture isolation was similar to controls. Immunoblot analysis of sera from immunized animals and from a group of immune animals post-infection was performed using recombinant fusion peptides containing the four variable domains of MOMP. No consistent differences in reaction patterns were observed when sera from protected and non-protected animals were compared. Thus, a highly refined outer-membrane preparation is capable of producing partial immunity to genital infection. Further study is required to determine whether the protection is due to MOMP itself or to other outer-membrane proteins found in small amounts in the OGP-MOMP immunogen. The results suggest the possibility that discontinuous MOMP epitopes could play a role in inducing a protective immune response in the guinea-pig model, a concept that requires further evaluation.

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Revised:
  • Published Online:
© Society for General Microbiology, 1993
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journal/micro/10.1099/00221287-139-12-2965
1993-12-01
2024-04-16
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/micro/139/12/mic-139-12-2965.html?itemId=/content/journal/micro/10.1099/00221287-139-12-2965&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Baehr W., Zhang Y.-X., Joseph T., Su H., Nano F.E., Everett K.D.E., Caldwell H.D. 1988; Mapping antigenic domains expressed by Chlamydia trachomatis major outer membrane protein. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 854000–4004
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Batteiger B.E., Rank R.G. 1987; Analysis of the humoral immune response in chlamydial genital infection in guinea pigs. Infection and Immunity 55:1767–1773
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Batteiger B.E., Newhall W.J.V., Jones R.B. 1985; Differences in outer membrane proteins of the lymphogranuloma venereum and trachoma biovars of Chlamydia trachomatis. Infection and Immunity 50:488–494
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Bavoil P., Ohlin A., Schachter J. 1984; Role of disulfide bonding in outer membrane structure and permeability in Chlamydia trachomatis. Infection and Immunity 44:479–485
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Bradford M.M. 1976; A rapid and sensitive method for the quantitation of microgram quantities of protein utilizing the principle of protein-dye binding. Analytical Biochemistry 72:248–254
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Caldwell H.D., Schachter J.S. 1982; Antigenic analysis of the major outer membrane protein of Chlamydia spp. Infection and Immunity 35:1024–1031
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Caldwell H.D., Kromhout J., Schachter J.S. 1981; Purification and partial characterization of the major outer membrane protein of Chlamydia trachomatis. Infection and Immunity 31:1161–1176
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Charbit A., Boulain J.-C., Ryter A., Hofnung M. 1986; Probing the topology of a bacterial membrane protein by genetic insertion of a foreign epitope: expression at the cell surface. EM BO Journal 5:3029–3037
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Collett B.A., Newhall W.J.V., Jersild R.A.Jr Jones R. B. 1989; Detection of surface-exposed epitopes on Chlamydia trachomatis by immune electron microscopy. Journal of General Microbiology 135:85–94
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Laemmli U.K. 1970; Cleavage of structural proteins during the assembly of the head of bacteriophage T4. Nature; London: 227680–685
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Morrison R.P., Lyng K., Caldwell H.D. 1989; Chlamydial disease pathogenesis: ocular hypersensitivity elicited by a genus- specific 57-kD protein. Journal of Experimental Medicine 169:663–675
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Newhall W.J.V., Batteiger B.E., Jones R.B. 1982; Analysis of the human serological response to proteins of Chlamydia trachomatis. Infection and Immunity 38:1181–1189
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Rank R.G., Barron A.L. 1987; Specific effect of estradiol on the genital mucosal antibody response in chlamydial ocular and genital infections. Infection and Immunity 55:2317–2319
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Rank R.G., Batteiger B.E. 1989; Protective role of serum antibody in immunity to chlamydial genital infection. Infection and Immunity 57:299–301
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Rank R.G., Batteiger B.E., Soderberg L.S.F. 1988; Susceptibility to reinfection after a primary chlamydial genital infection. Infection and Immunity 56:2243–2249
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Rank R.G., Soderberg L.S.F., Sanders M. M, Batteiger B.E. 1989; Role of cell-mediated immunity in the resolution of secondary chlamydial genital infection in guinea pigs infected with the agent of guinea pig inclusion conjunctivitis. Infection and Immunity 57:706–710
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Schachter J. 1985; Overview of Chlamydia trachomatis infection and the requirements for a vaccine. Reviews of Infectious Diseases 7:713–716
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Schachter J., Dawson C.R. 1978 Human Chlamydial Infections Littleton, Mass: PSG Publishing Co.;
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Spindler K.R., Rosser D.S.E., Berk A.J. 1984; Analysis of adenovirus transforming proteins from early regions 1A and IB with antisera to inducible fusion antigens produced in Escherichia coli. Journal of Virology 49:132–141
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Stephens R.S., Wagar E.A., Schoolnik G.K. 1988; High- resolution mapping of serovar-specific and common antigenic determinants of the major outer membrane protein of Chlamydia trachomatis. Journal of Experimental Medicine 167:817–831
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Su H., Zhang Y.-X., Barrera O., Watkins N., Caldwell H.D. 1988; Differential effect of trypsin on infectivity of Chlamydia trachomatis: loss of infectivity requires cleavage of major outer membrane protein variable domains II and IV. Infection and Immunity 56:2094–2100
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Tan T.-W., Herring A.J., Anderson I.E., Jones G.E. 1990; Protection of sheep against Chlamydia psittaci infection with a subcellular vaccine containing the major outer membrane protein. Infection and Immunity 58:3101–3108
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Taylor H.R., Whittum-Hudson J., Schachter J., Caldwell H.D. 1988; Oral immunization with chlamydial major outer membrane protein (MOMP). Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science 29:1847–1853
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Yuan Y., Zhang Y.-X., Watkins N.G., Caldwell H.D. 1989; Nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences for the four variable domains of the major outer membrane proteins of the 15 Chlamydia trachomatis serovars. Infection and Immunity 57:1040–1049
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Zhang Y.-X., Stewart S., Joseph T., Taylor H.R., Caldwell H.D. 1987; Protective monoclonal antibodies recognize epitopes located on the major outer membrane protein of Chlamydia trachomatis. Journal of Immunology 138:575–581
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Zhang Y.-X., Morrison S.G., Caldwell H.D., Baehr W. 1989; Cloning and sequence analysis of the major outer membrane protein genes of two Chlamydia psittaci strains. Infection and Immunity 57:1621–1625
     [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journal/micro/10.1099/00221287-139-12-2965
Loading
Partial protection against genital reinfection by immunization of guinea-pigs with isolated outer-membrane proteins of the chlamydial agent of guinea-pig inclusion conjunctivitis
Microbiology 139, 2965 (1993); https://doi.org/10.1099/00221287-139-12-2965
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/00221287-139-12-2965
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/00221287-139-12-2965
Loading

Data & Media loading...

Most cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error