Rickettsia conorii O antigen is the target of bactericidal Weil?Felix antibodies [electronic resource]

• Ngôn ngữ: eng
• Ký hiệu phân loại: 616.99 Tumors and miscellaneous communicable diseases
• Thông tin xuất bản: Washington, D.C. : Oak Ridge, Tenn. : United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Science ; Distributed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Dept. of Energy, 2019
• Mô tả vật lý: Size: p. 19659-19664 : , digital, PDF file.
• Bộ sưu tập: Metadata
• ID: 259973
• Chủ đề: 1. | lipopolysaccharide; 2. 60 applied life sciences; 3. O antigen; 4. Polysaccharide synthesis operon; 5. Science & technology - other topics; 6. Transposon mutagenesis; 7. Weil?felix reaction

Tóm tắt

Rickettsial diseases have long been diagnosed with serum antibodies cross-reactive against Proteus vulgaris (Weil?Felix reaction). Although Weil?Felix antibodies are associated with the development of immunity, their rickettsial target and contribution to disease pathogenesis are not established. Here, we developed a transposon for insertional mutagenesis of Rickettsia conorii, isolating variants defective for replication in cultured cells and in spotted fever pathogenesis. Mutations in the polysaccharide synthesis operon (pso) abolish lipopolysaccharide O-antigen synthesis and Weil?Felix serology and alter outer-membrane protein assembly. Unlike wild-type R. conorii, pso mutants cannot elicit bactericidal antibodies that bind O antigen. The pso operon is conserved among rickettsial pathogens, suggesting that bactericidal antibodies targeting O antigen may generate universal immunity that could be exploited to develop vaccines against rickettsial diseases.