Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Preventing Bacterial Infections with Pilus-Based Vaccines: the Group B Streptococcus Paradigm

2008; Oxford University Press; Volume: 199; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1086/595564

1537-6613

Immaculada Margarit, C. Daniela Rinaudo, Cesira L. Galeotti, Domenico Maione, Claudia Ghezzo, Elena Buttazzoni, Roberto Rosini, Ylenia Runci, Marirosa Mora, Scilla Buccato, Massimiliano Pagani, Eleonora Tresoldi, Alberto Berardi, Roberta Creti, Carol J. Baker, John L. Telford, Guido Grandi,

Bacterial Infections and Vaccines

We recently described the presence of 3 pilus variants in the human pathogen group B streptococcus (GBS; also known as Streptococcus agalactiae), each encoded by a distinct pathogenicity island, as well as the ability of pilus components to elicit protection in mice against homologous challenge. To determine whether a vaccine containing a combination of proteins from the 3 pilus types could provide broad protection, we analyzed pili distribution and conservation in 289 clinical isolates. We found that pilus sequences in each island are conserved, all strains carried at least 1 of the 3 islands, and a combination of the 3 pilus components conferred protection against all tested GBS challenge strains. These data are the first to indicate that a vaccine exclusively constituted by pilus components can be effective in preventing infections caused by GBS, and they pave the way for the use of a similar approach against other pathogenic streptococci.