Live attenuated bacterial vaccines: new approaches for safety and efficacy

Humoral and Cellular Immune Response of European Seabass Dicentrarchus labrax Vaccinated with Heat-Killed Mycobacterium marinum (iipA::kan Mutant)

No vaccine is yet commercially available against Mycobacterium marinum, the etiological agent of fish mycobacteriosis (also known as "fish tuberculosis"). The mycobacterial gene responsible for invasion and intracellular persistence, iipA, is known to moderate M. marinum pathology in Zebrafish Danio rerio. Two doses of heat-killed, wild-type, virulent M. marinum and two doses of a heat-killed, avirulent M. marinum iipA::kan mutant strain were used in parallel to vaccinate European Seabass Dicentrarchus labrax. The fish were then challenged with live, virulent M. marinum, and the pathogenesis of the infection was monitored. High specific immunoglobulin M (IgM) response and an increase in cytokine tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) messenger RNA expression levels were observed in all vaccinated fish. At 1 month postchallenge, TNF-α expression levels increased in spleen tissues of fish vaccinated with the virulent type and in those of unvaccinated fish, whereas in the head kidney, expression was up-regulated only in unvaccinated fish. The expression then decreased, and at 2 months postchallenge, expression appeared similar in all vaccination types. The highest survival rate (75%) was recorded in the group of fish that were vaccinated with a high dose of avirulent iipA::kan mutant. The iipA::kan mutant induced a strong immune response accompanied by only modest tissue disruption. Coupled with an effective program of booster treatments, the iipA::kan mutant vaccine may be developed into a powerful preventive measure against fish mycobacteriosis.

Temperature-sensitive mutants ofStaphylococcus aureus: Isolation and preliminary characterization

Temperature-sensitive (ts) mutants ofStaphylococcus aureus were isolated after mutagenesis with nitrosoguanidine and two cycles of enrichment with Penicillin G and D-Cycloserine. The mutants expressed tight, coasting, and leaky phenotypes on solid media. In broth, however, most exhibited coasting for a limited number of generations. The reversion frequency of selected ts mutants was less than 10(-6). Intraperitoneal (i.p.) immunization with ts mutant G/1/2 conferred significant protection (0 dead/6 total vs. 7/7, immunized vs. control; p=0.0006) from lethal i.p. challenge with the parental wild-type (wt)S. aureus suspended in 5% porcine mucin, performed 28 days after i.p. administration of 10(8) colony-forming units. Protection induced by mutants of coasting phenotype was higher and lasted longer than that induced by mutants of the tight phenotype. The results of this study demonstrate that ts mutants ofS. aureus can be obtained and that ts mutants are able to induce protective immunity from subsequent challenge with the parental wt strain.

Topical and mucosal liposomes for vaccine delivery

Mucosal (and in minor extent transcutanous) stimulation can induce local or distant mucosa secretory IgA. Liposomes and other vesicles as mucosal and transcutaneous adjuvants are attractive alternatives to parenteral vaccination. Liposomes can be massively produced under good manufacturing practices and stored for long periods, at high antigen/vesicle mass ratios. However, their uptake by antigen-presenting cells (APC) at the inductive sites remains as a major challenge. As neurotoxicity is a major concern in intranasal delivery, complexes between archaeosomes and calcium as well as cationic liposomes complexed with plasmids encoding for antigenic proteins could safely elicit secretory and systemic antigen-specific immune responses. Oral bilosomes generate intense immune responses that remain to be tested against challenge, but the admixing with toxins or derivatives is mandatory to reduce the amount of antigen. Most of the current experimental designs, however, underestimate the mucus blanket 100- to 1000-fold thicker than a 100-nm diameter liposome, which has first to be penetrated to access the underlying M cells. Overall, designing mucoadhesive chemoenzymatic resistant liposomes, or selectively targeted to M cells, has produced less relevant results than tailoring the liposomes to make them mucus penetrating. Opposing, the nearly 10 µm thickness stratum corneum interposed between liposomes and underlying APC can be surpassed by ultradeformable liposomes (UDL), with lipid matrices that penetrate up to the limit with the viable epidermis. UDL made of phospholipids and detergents, proved to be better transfection agents than conventional liposomes and niosomes, without the toxicity of ethosomes, in the absence of classical immunomodulators.

Molecular diversity of live-attenuated prototypic vaccine strains and clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus

Bovine mastitis Staphylococcus aureus isolates and prototypic live-attenuated vaccine strains were analyzed by SmaI pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) typing and automated ribotyping. The discriminatory index of these methods was 0.91 and 0.69, respectively. SmaI PFGE typing assigned all laboratory strains into cluster Q, which shared 49% similarity with clusters A and B, and 35% similarity with cluster C. Automated ribotyping placed laboratory strains within ribogroups different from those of bovine isolates. These methods have 70% concordance and permitted identification of the prototypic vaccine background from those of clinical isolates. This information is required before conducting field trials with the vaccine.

Cutaneous vaccination: the skin as an immunologically active tissue and the challenge of antigen delivery

Vaccination is one of the major achievements of modern medicine. As a result of vaccination, diseases such as polio and measles have been controlled and small pox has been eradicated. However, despite these successes there are still many microbial diseases that cause tremendous suffering because there is no vaccine or the vaccines available are inadequate. In addition, even if vaccines were available for all infectious diseases there is no guarantee that people would use them routinely. One of the major impediments to ensuring vaccine efficacy and compliance is that of delivery. Presently most vaccines are given by intramuscular administration. Unfortunately this is often traumatic, especially in infants. Thus, if it was possible to replace intramuscular immunization by mucosal (oral/intranasal) or transdermal delivery it may be possible to both enhance mucosal immunity as well as improve overall compliance rates. The transdermal route has been used by the pharmaceutical industry for the delivery of various low molecular weight drugs. Some of the approaches used for smaller compounds may also have potential for delivery of either protein or polynucleotide vaccines. However, there is a greater challenge to delivering large molecular weight molecules through the skin due to size, charge and other physicochemical properties. This review will describe the recent advances that have been made in dermal and topical delivery as related to vaccines.

Temperature-sensitive mutants of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae induce protection in mice

Temperature-sensitive mutants of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae 4074, serotype 1, were isolated after treatment with nitrosoguanidine and enrichment with penicillin and D-cycloserine. Of the four temperature-sensitive mutants evaluated in mice, one (A-1) had a tight phenotype (i.e., it ceased replication immediately after transfer to the nonpermissive temperature [37 degrees C]) and three (1-2, 4-1, and 12-1) were coasters that continued replication for up to three generations after transfer to 37 degrees C. The reversion frequencies ranged from 10(-6) to 10(-9), and cutoff temperatures ranged from 33 to 35 degrees C. No major changes were detected in the biochemical profiles; agglutination reactions; electrophoretic profiles of the lipopolysaccharides, outer membrane proteins, and hemolysin proteins; hemolytic titers; or CAMP factor reactions of the mutants and the wild-type bacteria. Groups of 3- to 5-week-old, female ICR mice were immunized intranasally with three doses of 3.5 x 10(6) CFU of the mutants over 3 weeks and subsequently challenged intranasally with 5 50% lethal doses of the parental wild-type. Protection was induced by both the tight and the coaster mutants, with the 4-1 and 12-1 coasters eliciting greater protection (67 and 82%, respectively) than that induced by the A-1 tight mutant (57%). Intranasal immunization with both phenotypes induced serum antibody responses against the surface antigens and the hemolysin protein.

Temperature-sensitive mutants of bacterial pathogens: isolation and use to determine host clearance and in vivo replication rates

Temperature-sensitive mutants of bacterial pathogens are relatively easy to obtain and characterize. We have used ts mutants of a number of bacterial pathogens: E. coli and Listeria monocytogenes to determine quantitatively the bacterial activities in vitro of macrophages and polymorphonuclear leukocytes; E. coli and P. cepacia to study clearance of the bacteria in vivo; and Salmonella enteritidis, Listeria monocytogenes, E. coli, P. aeruginosa, and P. cepacia to determine quantitatively the replication rates in the spleens, lungs, and peritoneal cavities of mice, and the lungs of chickens.

Genetically stable temperature-sensitive mutants of Salmonella typhi induce protection in mice

Temperature-sensitive (ts) mutants of Salmonella typhi were isolated following treatment with nitrosoguanidine, and characterized with respect to cut-off temperature, ts phenotype and reversion frequency. Linkage of the ts mutations to selectable chromosomal markers was established by generalized transduction with bacteriophage phage Vi I, and the appropriate antibiotic resistances were transduced into the ts mutants. Multiple mutant S. typhi were then constructed by combining three independent ts mutations in one strain, utilizing linkage of three of the mutations to erythromycin-, streptomycin- and methylglyoxal-resistance. Several recombinants are genetically stable, with calculated reversion rates of less than 10(-22), and induce both protection from intraperitoneal challenge with the virulent parental wild-type S. typhi in mice and the formation of antibodies to the somatic O-9 and O-12, the flagellar H and the capsular Vi antigens.

Local and systemic immunity against Streptococcus pneumoniae: humoral responses against a non-capsulated temperature-sensitive mutant

Temperature-sensitive mutants of Streptococcus pneumoniae were isolated after chemical mutagenesis. Intranasal immunization with temperature-sensitive mutant J/3 induced higher levels of circulating antibody than those obtained after immunization with the heat-killed parental wild type. Moreover, local immunization with mutant J/3 induced high levels of anti-S. pneumoniae IgG and IgA in the lower respiratory tract, whereas only moderate IgG (and no IgA) antibodies were detected in lung lavage fluids from mice immunized intranasally with the heat-killed strain.

Oral immunization of mice with temperature-sensitive Pseudomonas aeruginosa enhances pulmonary clearance of the wild-type

DBA/2J mice were immunized daily for 3 days per os with 10(8)-10(9) colony forming units (c.f.u.) of two different temperature-sensitive (TS) mutants of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. At varying times after the final immunization the animals were exposed to aerosols of the parental immunotype 1, and the ability of the immunized and control mice to clear their lungs of the wild-type (WT) challenge was measured 4 h later. The number of c.f.u. remaining in the lungs of mice immunized with one mutant, D/1/8, was significantly less (p less than 0.01) than the number remaining in the lungs of control mice and mice immunized with a second TS mutant, E/9/9.

Immunization with temperature-sensitive mutants of Salmonella typhi induces protection in mice

Temperature-sensitive (TS) mutants of Salmonella typhi were isolated following mutagenesis with nitrosoguanidine and two cycles of enrichment with penicillin and D-cycloserine. Several of the TS mutants were characterized with respect to growth profiles at permissive (29 degrees C) and non-permissive (36 degrees C) temperatures, reversion rates, and the potential for inducing protection against challenge in an animal model. All three TS mutants tested were immunogenic in mice; antibodies measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were produced following intraperitoneal (i.p.) immunization with three different doses of each of the mutants; i.p. immunization with the same mutants also induced highly significant protection (100%) from i.p. wild-type challenge; and oral immunization with one of the mutants significantly reduced shedding of the wild-type following oral challenge.

Virulence and vaccine potential of phoP mutants of Salmonella typhimurium

We have constructed Salmonella typhimurium phoP mutants and found them to be avirulent and able to induce a protective immune response. BALB/c mice survived challenge with phoP derivatives of the highly virulent S. typhimurium strains SR-11 and SL1344 when inoculated intraperitoneally and per oral with doses equivalent to 10(4) 50% lethal doses (LD50) of the parent virulent strains. The avirulent mutants were able to establish an infection of the Peyer's patches of orally infected animals for up to 10 days after inoculation but were very inefficient at reaching the spleens. Despite the low level of infectivity of these mutants, immunized animals developed a delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) response to Salmonella antigens and resisted challenge with up to 10(4) LD50 of the virulent parent strain 30 days after immunization.

Immune enhancement of pulmonary clearance of nontypable Haemophilus influenzae

BALB/c mice systemically immunized by intraperitoneal injection with whole, viable cells of two different strains of nontypable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHI) exhibited a markedly enhanced ability to clear the homologous strain of NTHI from the lower respiratory tract. Immunization did not influence the number of phagocytic cells recovered by bronchoalveolar lavage from mice before or after intrapulmonary challenge with NTHI. Immunization also induced the synthesis of relatively large quantities of NTHI-directed antibodies which were detectable in both the bloodstream and the alveolar spaces of the lung. Radioimmunoprecipitation and Western blot (immunoblot) analyses indicated that these antibodies were directed against both the proteins and lipooligosaccharide (LOS) in the NTHI outer membrane. Bactericidal and opsonophagocytic assays determined that the NTHI-directed antibodies in the serum were functional and able to kill or opsonize the homologous NTHI strain. Mice immunized with an NTHI major outer membrane protein-LOS complex also had an increased ability to effect pulmonary clearance of NTHI. Serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid collected from these animals immunized with the outer membrane protein-LOS complex contained relatively high levels of antibodies to both of these antigens. The serum from these animals also possessed bactericidal and opsonic activity against the homologous NTHI strain. These results indicate that systemic immunization can enhance the ability of experimental animals to clear NTHI from the lower respiratory tract and suggest that immunoprophylaxis of NTHI pulmonary disease may be feasible.

Differential growth characteristics and immunogenicity of tight and coasting temperature-sensitive mutants of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Genetically attenuated vaccines capable of limited replication in the vaccinate may elicit stronger, longer-lasting immunity than that induced by component, killed whole-cell, or nonreplicating live vaccines. We have isolated and partially characterized temperature-sensitive Pseudomonas aeruginosa mutants of two different phenotypes: a tight mutant, which ceases all growth immediately after its transfer to 36 degrees C, and a coaster, which continues to replicate for five generations at 36 degrees C. The growth profiles of the two temperature-sensitive phenotypes were compared both in vitro and in vivo; maintenance of the coasting phenotype in vivo was confirmed. The immunogenicity of the two phenotypes was compared in two models. In model 1, ICR mice were immunized intraperitoneally (i.p.) with graded doses of either mutant and challenged 3 weeks later i.p. with lethal doses of the wild-type strain. In model 2, DBA/2J mice were immunized intranasally with either mutant and subsequently challenged with an aerosolized inoculum of the wild-type strain, and lung clearance was measured over 4 h. In both models, the coaster demonstrated slightly higher immunogenic potential and, in addition, induced significantly higher levels of immunotype-specific serum immunoglobulin G after i.p. immunization.