Expression, purification and antibody preparation of flagellin FlaA from Vibrio alginolyticus strain HY9901

Antibiotic resistance, virulence and genetic characteristics of Vibrio alginolyticus isolates from aquatic environment in costal mariculture areas in China

Vibrio alginolyticus has been the second most common Vibrio species in the world and mainly grows in the ocean or estuary environment, which can induce epidemics outbreaks under marine organisms, and causing serious economic losses in aquaculture industry. In this study, the genetic populations and evolutionary relationship analysis of V. alginolyticus isolated from different geographical locations in China with typical interannual differences were exhibited originally genetic diversity. Then the virulence genes prevalence, antibiotic resistance phenotype, and antimicrobial resistance genes risk diversity of V. alginolyticus were analyzed by phenotypic and molecular typing methods. And they were complex correlations among antibiotic phenotypes, resistance and virulence genes under different genotype of V. alginolyticus. The results provide a theoretical foundation for further understanding the genetic and metabolic diversity among V. alginolyticus in China, and lay a theoretical foundation for the transmission risk assessment and regional diagnosis of Vibrio in aquatic animals.

Characterization of Two-Component System CitB Family in Salmonella Pullorum

Salmonella enterica, serovar Gallinarum, biovar Pullorum, is an avian-specific pathogen which has caused considerable economic losses to the poultry industry worldwide. Two-component systems (TCSs) play an essential role in obtaining nutrients, detecting the presence of neighboring bacteria and regulating the expression of virulence factors. The genome analysis of S. Pullorum strain S06004 suggesting the carriage of 22 pairs of TCSs, which belong to five families named CitB, OmpR, NarL, Chemotaxis and LuxR. In the CitB family, three pairs of TCSs, namely CitA-CitB, DcuS-DcuR and DpiB-DpiA, remain unaddressed in S. Pullorum. To systematically investigate the function of the CitB family in S. Pullorum, four mutants, ΔcitAB (abbreviated as Δcit), ΔdcuSR (Δdcu), ΔdpiBA (Δdpi) and ΔcitABΔdcuSRΔdpiBA (Δ3), were made using the CRISPR/Cas9 system. The results demonstrated that the CitB family did not affect the growth of bacteria, the results of biochemical tests, invasion and proliferation in chicken macrophage HD-11 cells and the expression of fimbrial protein. But the mutants showed thicker biofilm formation, higher resistance to antimicrobial agents, enhanced tolerance to inhibition by egg albumen and increased virulence in chicken embryos. Moreover, the deletion of Dpi TCS was detrimental to survival after exposure to hyperosmotic and oxidative environments, as well as the long-term colonization of the small intestine of chickens. Collectively, we provided new knowledge regarding the possible role of the CitB family involved in the pathogenic processes of S. Pullorum.

Preliminary Work Towards Finding Proteins as Potential Vaccine Candidates for Vibrio cholerae Pakistani Isolates through Reverse Vaccinology

Background and Objective: Vibrio cholerae continues to emerge as a dangerous pathogen because of increasing resistance to a number of antibiotics. This paper provides a solution to emerging antibiotic resistance by introducing novel proteins as vaccine candidates against cholera. Materials and Methods: Vibrio cholerae genome versatility is a hurdle for developing a vaccine to combat diarrhoeal infection, so its core gene information was used to determine a potential vaccine candidate. Whole genome sequence data of more than 100 Vibrio cholerae strains were used simultaneously to get core genome information. The VacSol pipeline based on reverse vaccinology was selected to address the problem of safe, cheap, temperature-stable, and effective vaccine candidates which can be used for vaccine development against Vibrio cholerae. VacSol screens vaccine candidates using integrated, well-known, and robust algorithms/tools for proteome analysis. The proteomes of the pathogens were initially screened to predict homology using BLASTp. Proteomes that are non-homologous to humans are then subjected to a predictor for localization. Helicer predicts transmembrane helices for the protein. Proteins failing to comply with the set parameters were filtered at each step, and finally, 11 proteins were filtered as vaccine candidates. Results: This selected group of vaccine candidates consists of proteins from almost all structural parts of Vibrio cholerae. Their blast results show that this filtered group includes flagellin A protein, a protein from the Zn transporter system, a lipocarrier outer membrane protein, a peptidoglycan-associated protein, a DNA-binding protein, a chemotaxis protein, a tRNA Pseuriudine synthase A, and two selected proteins, which were beta lactamases. The last two uncharacterized proteins possess 100% similarity to V. albensis and Enterobacter, respectively. Tertiary structure and active site determination show a large number of pockets on each protein. Conclusions: The most interesting finding of this study is that 10 proteins out of 11 filtered proteins are introduced as novel potential vaccine candidates. These novel vaccine candidates can result in the development of cost-effective and broad-spectrum vaccines which can be used in countries where cholera is a major contributor to diarrheal disease.

Recombinant Epinephelus lanceolatus serum amyloid A as a feed additive: Effects on immune gene expression and resistance to Vibrio alginolyticus infection in Epinephelus lanceolatus

Recombinant Epinephelus lanceolatus serum amyloid A (rElSAA) exhibits strong immunostimulant activity and enhances phagocytic clearance of bacteria by macrophages. However, the effects of dietary rElSAA supplementation on growth performance, immunomodulation and disease resistance in giant grouper have not been previously evaluated. To test whether oral administration of rElSAA affects growth, fish were fed with 0, 0.88, 4.4 or 22 mg/kg rElSAA-containing diet for 28 days. No statistically significant differences in body weight were observed between groups. Next, we tested whether oral administration of rElSAA may enhance disease resistance. Fish were fed with 0, 0.88, 4.4 or 22 mg/kg rElSAA-containing diet for 3, 7, 14, 21 or 28 days, followed by challenge with Vibrio alginolyticus. Survival was then monitored for 4 days. Fish that were fed with rElSAA-containing diet for 28 days showed significantly improved survival after infection. In addition, the expression levels of immune defense-associated genes in hepatic tissue were assessed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction before and after V. alginolyticus infection. Oral administration of rElSAA increased the expression level of toll-like receptor 5, whereas the expression levels of CC chemokine 1, SAA and C reactive protein were decreased. Thus, the data suggest that rElSAA may enhance host immunity by attenuating regulatory T cell-mediated suppression of inflammation. Together, our results demonstrate that rElSAA is a promising candidate as a feed additive for giant grouper, which may effectively enhance disease resistance after being administered for several weeks.

Enhancement of host immune responses by oral vaccination to Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium harboring both FliC and FljB flagella

Flagellin, the structural component of the flagellar filament in various motile bacteria, can contribute to the activation of NF-κB and proinflammatory cytokine expression during the innate immune response in host cells. Thus, flagellin proteins represent a particularly attractive target for the development of vaccine candidates. In this study, we investigated the immune response by increasing the flagella number in the iacP mutant strain and the adjuvant activity of the flagellin component FljB of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. We found that the iacP mutant strain expresses two flagellin proteins (FliC and FljB), which result in increased NF-κB-dependent gene expression in bone marrow derived macrophages. Using an oral immunization mouse model, we observed that the administration of a live attenuated S. typhimurium BRD509 strain expressing the FliC and FljB flagellins induced significantly enhanced flagellin-specific IgG responses in the systemic compartment. The mice immunized with the recombinant attenuated S. typhimurium strain that has two types of flagella were protected from lethal challenge with the Salmonella SL1344 strain. These results indicate that overexpression of flagella in the iacP mutant strain enhance the induction of an antigen-specific immune responses in macrophage cell, and both the FliC and FljB flagellar filament proteins-producing S. typhimurium can induce protective immune responses against salmonellosis.

Antibodies against Marinobacter algicola and Salmonella typhimurium flagellins do not cross-neutralize TLR5 activation

Flagellins evoke strong innate and adaptive immune responses. These proteins may play a key role as radioprotectors, exert antitumoral activity in certain types of tumor and reduce graft-versus-host disease in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients. Notwithstanding, flagellins are highly immunogenic, and repeated use leads to their neutralization by systemic antibodies. This neutralization is not prevented by using functional deleted flagellins. These observations led us to explore the possibility of preventing initial neutralization by means of another functional flagellin that does not belong to common pathogenic bacteria but that has the capacity to activate TLR5. Here we characterized the functional capacity of the two-phase Marinobacter algicola (MA)-derived flagellins (F and FR) as systemic and mucosal adjuvants and compared their performance with that of Salmonella typhimurium (STF) flagellins (FljB and FliC). We also report for the first time on the in vitro and in vivo capacity of various flagellins to trigger TLR5 activation in the presence of species-specific anti-flagellin antibodies, the cross-neutralization mediated by these antibodies, and the sequential use of these flagellins for TLR5 activation. Our results showed that MA flagellins behave in a similar way to STF ones, inducing pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL8, CCL20, CCL2) and evoking a strong in vivo antibody response against a model epitope. More importantly, MA flagellins were fully functional, in vitro or in vivo, in the presence of a high concentration of neutralizing anti-flagellin STF antibodies, and STF flagellin was not inhibited by neutralizing anti-flagellin MA antibodies. The use of active flagellins from distinct bacteria could be a useful approach to prevent systemic neutralization of this group of adjuvants and to facilitate the rational design of flagellin-based vaccines and/or other therapeutic treatments (against ischemia, acute renal failure, tumors, ionizing radiations and also to improve the outcome of bone marrow transplants).