Conformation-dependent antibody response to Pseudomonas aeruginosa outer membrane proteins induced by immunization in humans

• Published in: FEMS immunology and medical microbiology 2000-01, Vol.27 (1), p.79-85
• Main Authors: Lee, Na-Gyong, Ahn, Bo-Young, Jung, Sang Bo, Kim, Young Gi, Kim, Hyun-Su, Park, Wan Je
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Antibodies, Bacterial - blood; Antibodies, Bacterial - immunology; Antibody response; Antigens; Antisera; Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins - chemistry; Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins - immunology; Bacterial Vaccines - chemistry; Bacterial Vaccines - immunology; Bacteriology; Biological and medical sciences; Blood plasma; Conformation; Conformation‐dependent epitope; Denaturation; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; Epitopes; Epitopes - chemistry; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human antibody response; Humans; IgG antibody; Immunization; Immunoblotting; Immunoglobulin G; Immunoglobulin G - blood; Immunoglobulin G - immunology; Immunoprecipitation; Male; Membrane proteins; Membranes; Microbiology; Outer membrane protein; Outer membrane proteins; Peptides; Precipitin Tests; Protein Conformation; Protein Denaturation; Proteins; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Pseudomonas aeruginosa - immunology; Rabbits; Synthetic peptides; Vaccination; Vaccines; Vaccines, antisera, therapeutical immunoglobulins and monoclonal antibodies
• ISSN: 0928-8244; 1574-695X; 2049-632X
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1574-695X.2000.tb01415.x

Abstract Outer membrane proteins (OMPs) of pathogenic bacteria have been used as protective antigens in developing bacterial vaccines. In the present study, we compared the antibody responses to a Pseudomonas aeruginosa OMP vaccine elicited in humans and rabbits by immunization. Immunization with the vaccine induced high titers of serum IgG antibody both in rabbits and humans but reactivities of the induced antibodies with the OMPs were different. The rabbit immune sera recognized most of the OMPs in the vaccine both in immunoblot and immunoprecipitation analyses. In contrast, a great variation in band pattern and intensity was observed among the human immune sera in immunoblot analysis, but not in immunoprecipitation analysis. Denaturation of the OMPs did not affect the binding activity of the rabbit immune sera as determined by ELISA, but substantially reduced those of the human immune sera and anti-OMP IgG purified from a pooled normal human plasma. These data suggest that antibody response to P. aeruginosa OMPs elicited by immunization in humans is mainly directed against discontinuous or conformation-dependent epitopes, which should be taken into account in developing vaccines, especially for OMP-derived synthetic peptides.