title: Potent monoclonal antibodies against Clostridium difficile toxin A elicited by DNA immunization.
abstract: Recent studies have demonstrated that DNA immunization is effective in eliciting antigen-specific antibody responses against a wide range of infectious disease targets. The polyclonal antibodies elicited by DNA vaccination exhibit high sensitivity to conformational epitopes and high avidity. However, there have been limited reports in literature on the production of monoclonal antibodies (mAb) by DNA immunization. Here, by using Clostridium difficile (C. diff) toxin A as a model antigen, we demonstrated that DNA immunization was effective in producing a panel of mAb that are protective against toxin A challenge and can also be used as sensitive reagents to detect toxin A from various testing samples. The immunoglobulin (Ig) gene usage for such mAb was also investigated. Further studies should be conducted to fully establish DNA immunization as a unique platform to produce mAb in various hosts.
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Province Key Laboratory in Infectious Diseases; The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University; Nanjing, P.R. China; Department of Infectious Diseases; The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University; Nanjing, P.R. China; China-US Vaccine Research Center; The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University; Nanjing, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Chunhua
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Province Key Laboratory in Infectious Diseases; The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University; Nanjing, P.R. China; Department of Infectious Diseases; The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University; Nanjing, P.R. China; China-US Vaccine Research Center; The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University; Nanjing, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Ke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Haiyuan Protein Biotech Co. Ltd.; Taizhou, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yanling
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: ICDC, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Province Key Laboratory in Infectious Diseases; The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University; Nanjing, P.R. China; Department of Infectious Diseases; The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University; Nanjing, P.R. China; China-US Vaccine Research Center; The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University; Nanjing, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Zuhu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: China-US Vaccine Research Center; The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University; Nanjing, P.R. China; Department of Medicine; University of Massachusetts Medical School; Worcester, MA USA.
authors.forename: Shixia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: China-US Vaccine Research Center; The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University; Nanjing, P.R. China; Department of Medicine; University of Massachusetts Medical School; Worcester, MA USA.
authors.forename: Shan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D004768:Enterotoxins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D007114:Immunization / Q000379:methods; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D019444:Vaccines, DNA / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D004768:Enterotoxins; D019444:Vaccines, DNA; C041348:tcdA protein, Clostridium difficile
keywords: C. difftoxin; DNA immunization; immunoglobulin genes; monoclonal antibody; toxin A