Susceptibility of germ-free pigs to challenge with protease mutants of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium.
Salmonella protease mutants, clpP and especially htrA, are candidate live oral vaccines in humans. A functional and mature immune system is, however, required to cope with them in mice. Here, we test the cytokine response of highly susceptible germ-free pigs to infection with Salmonella Typhimurium clpP and htrA mutants. Cytokine levels (IL-4, IL-10, IL-18 and IFN-gamma) were measured by ELISA in plasma and washes from the terminal small bowel 24h after oral challenge. Unlike the infection with the wild type strain, no IFN-gamma response and low IL-18 intestinal levels were found in pigs infected with the protease mutants. Despite this and regardless of partially reduced ability of htrA and clpP mutants to invade and multiply in a 3D4 porcine macrophage-like cell line, both the mutants were as virulent as was the wild type LT2 strain and caused fatal septicaemia in germ-free pigs. IFN-gamma and IL-18 response therefore did not correlate with the virulence of Salmonella Typhimurium. Our results indicate that htrA and clpP attenuations should be used with caution in populations in which an increased number of immunocompromised individuals can be expected.
Splichal
Igor
I
Department of Immunology and Gnotobiology, Institute of Microbiology of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 549 22 Novy Hradek, Czech Republic. splichal@biomed.cas.cz
Rychlik
Ivan
I
Gregorova
Daniela
D
Sebkova
Alena
A
Trebichavsky
Ilja
I
Splichalova
Alla
A
Muneta
Yoshihiro
Y
Mori
Yasuyuki
Y
D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D016207:Cytokines / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D005856:Germ-Free Life; D008264:Macrophages / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology; D009154:Mutation; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D012481:Salmonella Infections, Animal / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology*; D022562:Salmonella Vaccines / Q000276:immunology; D012486:Salmonella typhimurium / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D013552:Swine; D014774:Virulence
D016207:Cytokines; D022562:Salmonella Vaccines; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases