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Structure-based vaccines provide protection in a mouse model of ehrlichiosis.

Structure-based vaccines provide protection in a mouse model of ehrlichiosis.

Authors :
Sunil Thomas
Nagaraja R Thirumalapura
Patricia A Crocquet-Valdes
Bruce A Luxon
David H Walker
Source :
PLoS ONE, Vol 6, Iss 11, p e27981 (2011)
Publication Year :
2011
Publisher :
Public Library of Science (PLoS), 2011.

Abstract

Recent advances in bioinformatics have made it possible to predict the B cell and T cell epitopes of antigenic proteins. This has led to design of peptide based vaccines that are more specific, safe, and easy to produce. The obligately intracellular gram negative bacteria Ehrlichia cause ehrlichioses in humans and animals. As yet there are no vaccines to protect against Ehrlichia infection.We applied the principle of structural vaccinology to design peptides to the epitopes of Ehrlichia muris outer membrane P28-19 (OMP-1/P28) and Ehrlichia Heat shock protein 60 (Hsp60/GroEL) antigenic proteins. Both P28-19 and Ehrlichia Hsp60 peptides reacted with polyclonal antibodies against E. canis and E. chaffeensis and could be used as a diagnostic tool for ehrlichiosis. In addition, we demonstrated that mice vaccinated with Ehrlichia P28-19 and Hsp60 peptides and later challenged with E. muris were protected against the pathogen.Our results demonstrate the power of structural vaccines and could be a new strategy in the development of vaccines to provide protection against pathogenic microorganisms.

Subjects

Subjects :
Medicine
Science

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
19326203
Volume :
6
Issue :
11
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
PLoS ONE
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.720cfc2db3ed48b2bf8036949c55db16
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0027981