Abstract
Attenuated Salmonella are useful oral vaccine vectors capable of carrying multiple heterologous antigen genes, but optimal expression of foreign antigens has not yet been achieved. We hypothesized that Salmonella phoP-activated genes, which are transcriptionally activated within antigen-processing macrophages, could prove useful for delivery of heterologous antigens to the immune system. We have created a suicide vector that allows the stable chromosomal insertion of heterologous antigen genes within the phoP-activated gene C (pagC) of Salmonella and permits the expression of heterologous antigens as fusion proteins between the first 84 amino acids of PagC and the chosen antigen. The Escherichia coli phoA gene encoding alkaline phosphatase was cloned into this vector; the resultant plasmid was used to construct Salmonella typhimurium strains that express PagC-alkaline phosphatase fusion proteins from a single chromosomal gene copy. Such strains were administered orally and i.p. as vaccines to BALB/c mice and compared with control strains expressing alkaline phosphatase constitutively. After 3 weeks, mouse sera were analyzed for IgG responses to S. typhimurium lipopolysaccharide and alkaline phosphatase. Remarkably, though all mice had comparable antibody responses to lipopolysaccharide, only mice immunized with strains bearing phoP-activated fusion genes had antibody responses to the heterologous antigen. We conclude that expression of a heterologous antigen from an S. typhimurium in vivo-induced promoter that is activated within macrophages markedly enhances the immunogenicity of a model antigen expressed from a single chromosomal gene copy.
Full text
PDF




Images in this article
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Abshire K. Z., Neidhardt F. C. Analysis of proteins synthesized by Salmonella typhimurium during growth within a host macrophage. J Bacteriol. 1993 Jun;175(12):3734–3743. doi: 10.1128/jb.175.12.3734-3743.1993. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Alpuche Aranda C. M., Swanson J. A., Loomis W. P., Miller S. I. Salmonella typhimurium activates virulence gene transcription within acidified macrophage phagosomes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1992 Nov 1;89(21):10079–10083. doi: 10.1073/pnas.89.21.10079. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Behlau I., Miller S. I. A PhoP-repressed gene promotes Salmonella typhimurium invasion of epithelial cells. J Bacteriol. 1993 Jul;175(14):4475–4484. doi: 10.1128/jb.175.14.4475-4484.1993. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Belden W. J., Miller S. I. Further characterization of the PhoP regulon: identification of new PhoP-activated virulence loci. Infect Immun. 1994 Nov;62(11):5095–5101. doi: 10.1128/iai.62.11.5095-5101.1994. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Blomfield I. C., Vaughn V., Rest R. F., Eisenstein B. I. Allelic exchange in Escherichia coli using the Bacillus subtilis sacB gene and a temperature-sensitive pSC101 replicon. Mol Microbiol. 1991 Jun;5(6):1447–1457. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.1991.tb00791.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Brickman E., Beckwith J. Analysis of the regulation of Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase synthesis using deletions and phi80 transducing phages. J Mol Biol. 1975 Aug 5;96(2):307–316. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(75)90350-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Brockman R. W., Heppel L. A. On the localization of alkaline phosphatase and cyclic phosphodiesterase in Escherichia coli. Biochemistry. 1968 Jul;7(7):2554–2562. doi: 10.1021/bi00847a016. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Chatfield S. N., Charles I. G., Makoff A. J., Oxer M. D., Dougan G., Pickard D., Slater D., Fairweather N. F. Use of the nirB promoter to direct the stable expression of heterologous antigens in Salmonella oral vaccine strains: development of a single-dose oral tetanus vaccine. Biotechnology (N Y) 1992 Aug;10(8):888–892. doi: 10.1038/nbt0892-888. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Clements J. D., Lyon F. L., Lowe K. L., Farrand A. L., el-Morshidy S. Oral immunization of mice with attenuated Salmonella enteritidis containing a recombinant plasmid which codes for production of the B subunit of heat-labile Escherichia coli enterotoxin. Infect Immun. 1986 Sep;53(3):685–692. doi: 10.1128/iai.53.3.685-692.1986. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Cárdenas L., Clements J. D. Stability, immunogenicity and expression of foreign antigens in bacterial vaccine vectors. Vaccine. 1993;11(2):126–135. doi: 10.1016/0264-410x(93)90007-k. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Donnenberg M. S., Kaper J. B. Construction of an eae deletion mutant of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli by using a positive-selection suicide vector. Infect Immun. 1991 Dec;59(12):4310–4317. doi: 10.1128/iai.59.12.4310-4317.1991. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Edwards M. F., Stocker B. A. Construction of delta aroA his delta pur strains of Salmonella typhi. J Bacteriol. 1988 Sep;170(9):3991–3995. doi: 10.1128/jb.170.9.3991-3995.1988. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Fairweather N. F., Chatfield S. N., Makoff A. J., Strugnell R. A., Bester J., Maskell D. J., Dougan G. Oral vaccination of mice against tetanus by use of a live attenuated Salmonella carrier. Infect Immun. 1990 May;58(5):1323–1326. doi: 10.1128/iai.58.5.1323-1326.1990. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Feinberg A. P., Vogelstein B. A technique for radiolabeling DNA restriction endonuclease fragments to high specific activity. Anal Biochem. 1983 Jul 1;132(1):6–13. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(83)90418-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Fields P. I., Groisman E. A., Heffron F. A Salmonella locus that controls resistance to microbicidal proteins from phagocytic cells. Science. 1989 Feb 24;243(4894 Pt 1):1059–1062. doi: 10.1126/science.2646710. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Fields P. I., Swanson R. V., Haidaris C. G., Heffron F. Mutants of Salmonella typhimurium that cannot survive within the macrophage are avirulent. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 Jul;83(14):5189–5193. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.14.5189. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Flynn J. L., Weiss W. R., Norris K. A., Seifert H. S., Kumar S., So M. Generation of a cytotoxic T-lymphocyte response using a Salmonella antigen-delivery system. Mol Microbiol. 1990 Dec;4(12):2111–2118. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.1990.tb00572.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Galán J. E., Curtiss R., 3rd Virulence and vaccine potential of phoP mutants of Salmonella typhimurium. Microb Pathog. 1989 Jun;6(6):433–443. doi: 10.1016/0882-4010(89)90085-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Gonzalez C., Hone D., Noriega F. R., Tacket C. O., Davis J. R., Losonsky G., Nataro J. P., Hoffman S., Malik A., Nardin E. Salmonella typhi vaccine strain CVD 908 expressing the circumsporozoite protein of Plasmodium falciparum: strain construction and safety and immunogenicity in humans. J Infect Dis. 1994 Apr;169(4):927–931. doi: 10.1093/infdis/169.4.927. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Groisman E. A., Chiao E., Lipps C. J., Heffron F. Salmonella typhimurium phoP virulence gene is a transcriptional regulator. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1989 Sep;86(18):7077–7081. doi: 10.1073/pnas.86.18.7077. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Hoiseth S. K., Stocker B. A. Aromatic-dependent Salmonella typhimurium are non-virulent and effective as live vaccines. Nature. 1981 May 21;291(5812):238–239. doi: 10.1038/291238a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Laemmli U. K. Cleavage of structural proteins during the assembly of the head of bacteriophage T4. Nature. 1970 Aug 15;227(5259):680–685. doi: 10.1038/227680a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Mahan M. J., Slauch J. M., Mekalanos J. J. Selection of bacterial virulence genes that are specifically induced in host tissues. Science. 1993 Jan 29;259(5095):686–688. doi: 10.1126/science.8430319. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Mestecky J., McGhee J. R. Oral immunization: past and present. Curr Top Microbiol Immunol. 1989;146:3–11. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-74529-4_1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Miller S. I., Kukral A. M., Mekalanos J. J. A two-component regulatory system (phoP phoQ) controls Salmonella typhimurium virulence. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1989 Jul;86(13):5054–5058. doi: 10.1073/pnas.86.13.5054. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Miller V. L., Mekalanos J. J. A novel suicide vector and its use in construction of insertion mutations: osmoregulation of outer membrane proteins and virulence determinants in Vibrio cholerae requires toxR. J Bacteriol. 1988 Jun;170(6):2575–2583. doi: 10.1128/jb.170.6.2575-2583.1988. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Pulkkinen W. S., Miller S. I. A Salmonella typhimurium virulence protein is similar to a Yersinia enterocolitica invasion protein and a bacteriophage lambda outer membrane protein. J Bacteriol. 1991 Jan;173(1):86–93. doi: 10.1128/jb.173.1.86-93.1991. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Southern E. M. Detection of specific sequences among DNA fragments separated by gel electrophoresis. J Mol Biol. 1975 Nov 5;98(3):503–517. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(75)80083-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Su G. F., Brahmbhatt H. N., Wehland J., Rohde M., Timmis K. N. Construction of stable LamB-Shiga toxin B subunit hybrids: analysis of expression in Salmonella typhimurium aroA strains and stimulation of B subunit-specific mucosal and serum antibody responses. Infect Immun. 1992 Aug;60(8):3345–3359. doi: 10.1128/iai.60.8.3345-3359.1992. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Taylor R. K., Manoil C., Mekalanos J. J. Broad-host-range vectors for delivery of TnphoA: use in genetic analysis of secreted virulence determinants of Vibrio cholerae. J Bacteriol. 1989 Apr;171(4):1870–1878. doi: 10.1128/jb.171.4.1870-1878.1989. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]