title: Leptospiral immunoglobulin-like proteins elicit protective immunity.
abstract: The identification of new vaccine candidates for leptospirosis is of great interest. This paper describes the identification of two homologous immunogenic proteins, LigA-m and LigB-m, of Leptospira interrogans serovar manilae strain UP-MMC-NIID, which show strong similarity with LigA found recently in L. interrogans serovar pomona. Southern blot analysis indicated the conservation of the lig genes among pathogenic leptospires. LigA-m protein was shown to be a surface-exposed lipoprotein expressed during in vitro culture. Both LigA-m and LigB-m induced protective immunity against a challenge with a homologous serovar of L. interrogans in mice. Furthermore, patients' sera infected with heterologous serovars' strains contained antibodies against LigA-m and LigB-m. Our results suggest that LigA-m and LigB-m proteins are new vaccine candidates for the prevention of leptospirosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bacteriology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, 1-23-1 Toyama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8640, Japan. nkoizumi@nih.go.jp
authors.forename: Nobuo
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Koizumi
authors.forename: Haruo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Watanabe
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000276:immunology; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D019286:Endopeptidase K; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D006868:Hydrolysis; D007136:Immunoglobulins / Q000276:immunology*; D007921:Leptospira interrogans / Q000276:immunology*; D007922:Leptospirosis / Q000276:immunology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D051379:Mice; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000276:immunology; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D007136:Immunoglobulins; C487005:LigA-m protein, Leptospira interrogans; C487006:LigB-m protein, Leptospira interrogans; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic; D019286:Endopeptidase K