Vaccines 2018, 6(1), 2; doi:10.3390/vaccines6010002
Structural and Immunological Characterization of Novel Recombinant MOMP-Based Chlamydial Antigens
1
National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories, Boston University, Boston, MA 02118, USA
2
Department of Physiology & Biophysics and the Amyloidosis Treatment and Research Center, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118, USA
3
SutroVax, Inc., Foster City, CA 94404, USA
4
Department of Immunology, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02111, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 30 October 2017 / Revised: 2 December 2017 / Accepted: 21 December 2017 / Published: 25 December 2017
(This article belongs to the Special Issue TLR signaling in Immune Response)
Abstract
Chlamydia is the most common cause of bacterial sexually transmitted infections worldwide. While infections resolve with antibiotic treatment, this is often neglected in women due to frequent asymptomatic infections, leading to disease progression and severe sequelae (pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy, infertility). Development of a vaccine against Chlamydia is crucial. Whole organism-based vaccines have short-lived activity, serovar/subgroup-specific immunity and can cause adverse reactions in vaccinated subjects. The Chlamydia major outer membrane protein (MOMP) is a prime candidate for a subunit vaccine. MOMP contains four regions of sequence variability (variable domains, VDs) with B-cell and T-cell epitopes that elicit protective immunity. However, barriers for developing a MOMP-based vaccine include solubility, yield and refolding. We have engineered novel recombinant antigens in which the VDs are expressed into a carrier protein structurally similar to MOMP and suitable for recombinant expression at a high yield in a correctly folded and detergent-free form. Using a carrier such as the PorB porin from the human commensal organism N. lactamica, we show that PorB/VD chimeric proteins are immunogenic, antigenic and cross-reactive with MOMP. VDs are unique for each serovar but if combined in a single vaccine, a broad coverage against the major Chlamydia serovars can be ensured. View Full-Text
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).
Share & Cite This Article
MDPI and ACS Style
Madico, G.; Gursky, O.; Fairman, J.; Massari, P. Structural and Immunological Characterization of Novel Recombinant MOMP-Based Chlamydial Antigens. Vaccines 2018, 6, 2.
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
Related Articles
Article Metrics
Comments
[Return to top]
Vaccines
EISSN 2076-393X
Published by MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland
RSS
E-Mail Table of Contents Alert