Intranasal immunization of mice with a mixture of the pneumococcal proteins PsaA and PspA is highly protective against nasopharyngeal carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae.
Acquisition of pneumococci is generally from carriers rather than from infected individuals. Therefore, to induce herd immunity against Streptococcus pneumoniae it will be necessary to elicit protection against carriage. Capsular polysaccharide-protein conjugates, PspA, and PsaA are known to elicit some protection against nasopharyngeal carriage of pneumococci but do not always completely eliminate carriage. In this study, we observed that PsaA elicited better protection than did PspA against carriage. Pneumolysin elicited no protection against carriage. Immunization with a mixture of PsaA and PspA elicited the best protection against carriage. These results indicate that PspA and PsaA may be useful for the elicitation of herd immunity in humans. As PspA and pneumolysin are known to elicit immunity to bacteremia and pneumonia, their inclusion in a mucosal vaccine may enable such a vaccine to prevent invasive disease as well as carriage.
Briles
D E
DE
Department of Microbiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 35294, USA. dbriles@uab.edu
Ades
E
E
Paton
J C
JC
Sampson
J S
JS
Carlone
G M
GM
Huebner
R C
RC
Virolainen
A
A
Swiatlo
E
E
Hollingshead
S K
SK
D018829:Adhesins, Bacterial; D000281:Administration, Intranasal; D000818:Animals; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D001428:Bacterial Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*; D002353:Carrier State / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D007114:Immunization; D008074:Lipoproteins; D026901:Membrane Transport Proteins; D051379:Mice; D009305:Nasopharynx / Q000382:microbiology*; D045331:Photosystem I Protein Complex; D013296:Streptococcus pneumoniae / Q000276:immunology*; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic / Q000276:immunology*
D018829:Adhesins, Bacterial; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D001428:Bacterial Vaccines; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins; D008074:Lipoproteins; D026901:Membrane Transport Proteins; D045331:Photosystem I Protein Complex; C085000:PsaA protein, Streptococcus; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic; C069816:phage shock protein, Bacteria; C051592:pneumococcal surface protein A