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Identification of immunodominant antigens by probing a whole Chlamydia ORFome microarray using sera from immunized mice.
Infect Immun. 2010 Oct 18;
Authors: Cruz-Fisher MI, Cheng C, Sun G, Pal S, Teng A, Molina DM, Kayala MA, Vigil A, Baldi P, Felgner PL, Liang X, de la Maza LM
Chlamydia trachomatis infections can lead to severe chronic complications, including trachoma, ectopic pregnancy and infertility. The only effective approach to disease control is vaccination. The goal of this work was to identify new potential vaccine candidates through a proteomics approach. We constructed a protein chip array (Antigen Discovery, Inc.) by expressing the open reading frames (ORF) from C. trachomatis mouse pneumonitis (MoPn) genomic and plasmid DNA and tested it with serum samples from MoPn immunized mice. Two groups of BALB/c female mice were immunized either intranasally (i.n.) or intravaginally (i.vag.) with live elementary bodies (EB). Another two groups were immunized by the intramuscular (i.m.) plus subcutaneous (s.c.) routes, with UV-treated EB (UV-EB), using either CpG and Montanide as adjuvants to favor a Th1 response, or Alum to elicit a Th2 response. Serum samples collected at regular intervals post-immunization (p.i.), were tested in the proteome array. The microarray included the expression products of 909 proteins, from a total of 921 ORFs, of the Chlamydia MoPn genome and plasmid. A total of 185 immunodominant proteins elicited an early and sustained antibody response in the mice immunized with live EB and of these, 71 were also recognized by the sera from mice immunized with UV-EB. The reactive antigens included some proteins that were previously described as immunogenic such as MOMP, OmpB, Hsp60, IncA and proteins from the Type III secretion system. In addition, we identified several new immunogens, including 75 hypothetical proteins. In summary, we have identified a new group of immunodominant chlamydial proteins that can be tested for their ability to induce protection.
PMID: 20956570 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]