BackgroundPertussis (whooping cough) caused by Bordetella pertussis
(B.p), continues to be a serious public health threat.
Vaccination is the most economical and effective strategy for preventing and
controlling pertussis. However, few systematic investigations of actual
human immune responses to pertussis vaccines have been performed. Therefore,
we utilized a combination of two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE),
immunoblotting, and mass spectrometry to reveal the entire antigenic
proteome of whole-cell pertussis vaccine (WCV) targeted by the human immune
system as a first step toward evaluating the repertoire of human humoral
immune responses against WCV.Methodology/Principal FindingsImmunoproteomic profiling of total membrane enriched proteins and
extracellular proteins of Chinese WCV strain 58003 identified a total of 30
immunoreactive proteins. Seven are known pertussis antigens including
Pertactin, Serum resistance protein, chaperonin GroEL and two OMP porins.
Sixteen have been documented to be immunogenic in other pathogens but not in
B.p, and the immunogenicity of the last seven proteins
was found for the first time. Furthermore, by comparison of the human and
murine immunoproteomes of B.p, with the exception of four
human immunoreactive proteins that were also reactive with mouse immune
sera, a unique group of antigens including more than 20 novel immunoreactive
proteins that uniquely reacted with human immune serum was confirmed.Conclusions/SignificanceThis study is the first time that the repertoire of human serum antibody
responses against WCV was comprehensively investigated, and a small number
of previously unidentified antigens of WCV were also found by means of the
classic immunoproteomic strategy. Further research on these newly identified
predominant antigens of B.p exclusively against humans will
not only remarkably accelerate the development of diagnostic biomarkers and
subunit vaccines but also provide detailed insight into human immunity
mechanisms against WCV. In particular, this work highlights the
heterogeneity of the B.p immunoreactivity patterns of the
mouse model and the human host.
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