A novel sORF gene mutant strain of Yersinia pestis vaccine EV76 offers enhanced safety and improved protection against plague.

Autor: Guo X; State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, China., Xin Y; Key Laboratory for Plague Prevention and Control of Qinghai Province, Qinghai Institute for Endemic Disease Prevention and Control, Xining, China., Tong Z; School of Basic Medical Sciences, Anhui Medical University Hefei, China., Cao S; State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, China., Zhang Y; State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, China., Wu G; State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, China., Chen H; State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, China., Wang T; State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, China., Song Y; State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, China., Zhang Q; Key Laboratory for Plague Prevention and Control of Qinghai Province, Qinghai Institute for Endemic Disease Prevention and Control, Xining, China., Yang R; State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, China., Du Z; School of Basic Medical Sciences, Anhui Medical University Hefei, China.; Key Laboratory for Plague Prevention and Control of Qinghai Province, Qinghai Institute for Endemic Disease Prevention and Control, Xining, China.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: PLoS pathogens [PLoS Pathog] 2024 Mar 28; Vol. 20 (3), pp. e1012129. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Mar 28 (Print Publication: 2024).
DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1012129
Abstrakt: We recently identified two virulence-associated small open reading frames (sORF) of Yersinia pestis, named yp1 and yp2, and null mutants of each individual genes were highly attenuated in virulence. Plague vaccine strain EV76 is known for strong reactogenicity, making it not suitable for use in humans. To improve the immune safety of EV76, three mutant strains of EV76, Δyp1, Δyp2, and Δyp1&yp2 were constructed and their virulence attenuation, immunogenicity, and protective efficacy in mice were evaluated. All mutant strains were attenuated by the subcutaneous (s.c.) route and exhibited more rapid clearance in tissues than the parental strain EV76. Under iron overload conditions, only the mice infected with EV76Δyp1 survived, accompanied by less draining lymph nodes damage than those infected by EV76. Analysis of cytokines secreted by splenocytes of immunized mice found that EV76Δyp2 induced higher secretion of multiple cytokines including TNF-α, IL-2, and IL-12p70 than EV76. On day 42, EV76Δyp2 or EV76Δyp1&yp2 immunized mice exhibited similar protective efficacy as EV76 when exposed to Y. pestis 201, both via s.c. or intranasal (i.n.) routes of administration. Moreover, when exposed to 200-400 LD50 Y. pestis strain 201Δcaf1 (non-encapsulated Y. pestis), EV76Δyp2 or EV76Δyp1&yp2 are able to afford about 50% protection to i.n. challenges, significantly better than the protection afforded by EV76. On 120 day, mice immunized with EV76Δyp2 or EV76Δyp1&yp2 cleared the i.n. challenge of Y. pestis 201-lux as quickly as those immunized with EV76, demonstrating 90-100% protection. Our results demonstrated that deletion of the yp2 gene is an effective strategy to attenuate virulence of Y. pestis EV76 while improving immunogenicity. Furthermore, EV76Δyp2 is a promising candidate for conferring protection against the pneumonic and bubonic forms of plague.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
(Copyright: © 2024 Guo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)
Databáze: MEDLINE