Proteomics reveals that proteins expressed during the early stage of Bacillus anthracis infection are potential targets for the development of vaccines and drugs.
In this review, we advance a new concept in developing vaccines and/or drugs to target specific proteins expressed during the early stage of Bacillus anthracis (anthrax) infection and address existing challenges to this concept. Three proteins (immune inhibitor A, GPR-like spore protease, and alanine racemase) initially identified by proteomics in our laboratory were found to have differential expressions during anthrax spore germination and early outgrowth. Other studies of different bacillus strains indicate that these three proteins are involved in either germination or cytotoxicity of spores, suggesting that they may serve as potential targets for the design of anti-anthrax vaccines and drugs.
Huang
Chun-Ming
CM
Department of Dermatology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Alabama, USA. chunming@uab.edu
Elmets
Craig A
CA
Tang
De-chu C
DC
Li
Fuming
F
Yusuf
Nabiha
N
D000411:Alanine Racemase / Q000378:metabolism*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001408:Bacillus anthracis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D015180:Electrophoresis, Gel, Two-Dimensional; D015870:Gene Expression; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D008666:Metalloendopeptidases / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000235:genetics; D040901:Proteomics; D013171:Spores, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D010446:Peptide Fragments; C030069:spore-specific proteins, Bacillus; D008666:Metalloendopeptidases; C068500:immune inhibitor A; D000411:Alanine Racemase