Postgenomic Approaches and Bioinformatics Tools to Advance the Development of Vaccines against Bacteria of the Burkholderia cepacia Complex.

Sílvia Sousa,Jorge Leitão,António Seixas

doi:10.3390/vaccines6020034

Sílvia Sousa, Jorge Leitão + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines6020034

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Abstract

Bacteria of the Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc) remain an important cause of morbidity and mortality among patients suffering from cystic fibrosis. Eradication of these pathogens by antimicrobial therapy often fails, highlighting the need to develop novel strategies to eradicate infections. Vaccines are attractive since they can confer protection to particularly vulnerable patients, as is the case of cystic fibrosis patients. Several studies have identified specific virulence factors and proteins as potential subunit vaccine candidates. So far, no vaccine is available to protect from Bcc infections. In the present work, we review the most promising postgenomic approaches and selected web tools available to speed up the identification of immunogenic proteins with the potential of conferring protection against Bcc infections.

Highlights

Burkholderia cepacia was initially described in 1950 by Walter Burkholder as the phytopathogen formerly named Pseudomonas cepacia [1]. This organism emerged in the 1980s as an important opportunistic pathogen of patients suffering from cystic fibrosis (CF)
B. cepacia remains as the type species, the remarkable advances achieved in the molecular taxonomy of the bacterium led to the recognition that it is not a single species, but several closely related species that infect CF patients
These bacterial species comprise the Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc), which contains at least 24 distinct species [3,4,5,6]

Summary

Introduction

Burkholderia cepacia was initially described in 1950 by Walter Burkholder as the phytopathogen formerly named Pseudomonas cepacia [1] This organism emerged in the 1980s as an important opportunistic pathogen of patients suffering from cystic fibrosis (CF). B. cepacia remains as the type species, the remarkable advances achieved in the molecular taxonomy of the bacterium led to the recognition that it is not a single species, but several closely related species that infect CF patients Together, these bacterial species comprise the Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc), which contains at least 24 distinct species [3,4,5,6]. We review the powerful tools presently available, resulting from postgenomic knowledge and bioinformatic web tools, to design and develop protective vaccines

Which Is the Best Type of Vaccine for Bcc?

Experimental

Bioinformatics Tools to Predict Immunogenic Epitopes

Findings

Final Remarks and Perspectives