Abstract
Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct) is the leading cause of sexually transmitted diseases worldwide. There is no safe and effective vaccine to control the spread of Ct. In development of Ct vaccine, selection of appropriate candidate antigens and an effective delivery system may be the main challenges. Multi-epitope of major outer membrane protein (MOMPm) is the most suitable candidate for a Ct vaccine, while hepatitis B virus core antigen (HBcAg) has unique advantages as vaccine delivery system. Therefore, in this study, we evaluated the immunogenicity and protective immune response of a novel candidate vaccine in a murine model of chlamydial genital infection. This candidate vaccine comprises MOMPm peptide delivered with HBcAg. Our results of Ct-specific serum IgG and secretory IgA assay, cytokine assay, and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte assay revealed that immunogenicity of the candidate vaccine was much better than that of the corresponding synthetic MOMPm peptide. Furthermore, the protective effect of the candidate vaccine was also shown much better than that of the synthetic peptide by calculating the isolation of Chlamydia from vaginal swabs and histopathological analysis. Taken together, our results indicate that HBcAg carrying Ct MOMPm could be an effective immune prophylactic for chlamydial infection.
Highlights
Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct), an obligate intracellular parasite, is the main cause of preventable blindness and the leading cause of bacterial sexually transmitted diseases worldwide [1]
Obtainment of Ct MOMPm and formation of hepatitis B virus core antigen (HBcAg)/MOMPm chimeric viruslike particle (VLP). Several peptides containing both HLA and H2 restricted cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL)/Th epitopes were screened by analyzing the amino acid sequence of Ct
Selection of appropriate target antigens is the main problem in the development of Ct vaccine [15]
Summary
Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct), an obligate intracellular parasite, is the main cause of preventable blindness and the leading cause of bacterial sexually transmitted diseases worldwide [1]. Very effective antimicrobial therapy is available, chlamydial infection can recur . The best and most economical solution to control or eradicate the spread of Ct is to develop safe and effective vaccines. Considerable effort has been expended toward this goal, an effective vaccine has not yet been developed. Current challenges in the development of Ct vaccine include selection of appropriate candidate antigens and an effective delivery system [3]. The major outer membrane protein (MOMP), one of the highly conserved surface associated proteins among the different serotypes of Ct [4, 5], may be the most suitable candidate for a Ct vaccine because it contains both T- and B-cell epitopes that can induce specific antiCt immune responses. Multiepitopes of MOMP (MOMPm), T- and B-cell epitope-rich clusters, were selected to design Ct vaccines
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