Immunogenic mimics of Brucella lipopolysaccharide epitopes.
Brucella melitensis and Brucella abortus are responsible for brucellosis in bovine and ovine species and for Malta fever in humans. The lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of Brucella is an important virulence factor and can elicit protective antibodies. Because of their potential importance in vaccine design and in serological diagnosis, we developed peptides mimicking the antigenic properties of distinctive antigenic determinants of Brucella LPS. These peptides were selected from several phage display random peptide libraries for their ability to bind monoclonal antibodies directed against the A- or C-type epitopes of Brucella LPS. Plasmids encoding for two of the isolated peptides induced, after DNA immunization, LPS-specific antibody responses. Although these responses were only moderate in extent, these data further suggest the feasibility of using peptide mimics of carbohydrate epitopes as immunogens, a property which may be useful in the design of novel anti-Brucella vaccines.
Beninati
Concetta
C
Dipartimento di Patologia e Microbiologia Sperimentale, Università degli Studi di Messina, Messina, Italy. cbeninati@unime.it
Garibaldi
Manuela
M
Lo Passo
Carla
C
Mancuso
Giuseppe
G
Papasergi
Salvatore
S
Garufi
Gabriella
G
Pernice
Ida
I
Teti
Giuseppe
G
Felici
Franco
F
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D002002:Brucella / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology; D002004:Brucella Vaccine / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D002417:Cattle; D000939:Epitopes / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D018716:Molecular Mimicry; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D019151:Peptide Library; D010455:Peptides / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D012756:Sheep
D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D002004:Brucella Vaccine; D000939:Epitopes; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides; D019151:Peptide Library; D010455:Peptides