Chemical Basis for an Immunological Specificity of a Strain of Staphylococcus Aureus

Abstract

The structure and biosynthesis of the cell wall of Stapkylococcus aureus, strain Copenhagen, have been investigated previously (cf. reference 1). Studies of the immunological specificity of this strain were undertaken for several reasons. The chemical nature of the surface structure (the cell wall) of this organism was under investigation and had been partially elucidated. If, as seemed likely, the ceil wall contained immunological determinants, the chemical nature of structures responsible for this activity could be defined. Relatively little is known about the chemistry of the antigens ha staphylococci or their relationship to such biological phenomena as immunity, allergy, plmgocytosis, and intracellular lysis. Moreover, it seemed likely that immunological methods would prove useful in further studies of the biosynthesis of the cell wall of S. aureus. These have been the stimuli to the present work.Rabbit anfisera were prepared against whole organisms of S. aureus, strain Copenhagen, and were found to agglutinate cell walls prepared from this species. IIspten inhibition of this agglutination has led to the conclusion that the teichoic acid (eft reference 2) in the cell wall (a polymer of ribitol phosphate which contains glycosidicaUy linked N-acetylglucosamine and esterified D-alanine) contains a serologicaily active group. Among the earliest studies of the antigens in S. aureus strains were those of Julianelle and associates (3, 4). They isolated a substance termed polysaccharide A 25 years ago and showed that it was active both in precipitin tests with rabbit antisera and in inducing wheal and erythema in humans. A similar, but distinct substance, termed polysaccharide B, was isolated from Staphylococcus aIbus strains. In retrospect the described properties, as well as the method of isolation, of polysaccharides A and B indicate that these compounds were teichoic adds. In recent years, immunological activity of the polyglycerophosphate (which belongs to the family of teichoic acids, i.e. polyol phosphate polymers) found in several Gram-positive species has been demonstrated by McCarty (5).

Surface Glycopolymers Are Crucial for In Vitro Anti-Wall Teichoic Acid IgG-Mediated Complement Activation and Opsonophagocytosis of Staphylococcus aureus

“…Previous studies have shown that injection of S. aureus teichoic acids into humans or rabbits results in the induction of circulating antibodies against ␤-GlcNAc or ␣-GlcNAc WTA (35,36). Until recently, the lack of availability of purified homogeneous GlcNAc WTAs from S. aureus mutant cells hampered efforts to determine the exact epitope of anti-WTA antibodies.…”

Occurrence of antibodies to teichoic acid in patients with diseases other than staphylococcal infection

“…B-linked N-acetylglucosamine is the main antigenic determinant both in the ribitol teichoic acid of S. aureus and group A streptococcal polysaccharide (Juergens et al, 1963), which may explain the moderately high TAA titres in patients with streptococcal pharyngitis; B-linked N-acetylglucosamine is a prominent antigenic determinant also in Streptococcus bovis (Kane and Karakawa, 1969). Cross-reactions may be due also to ribitol phosphate compounds; the pneumococcal C substance is a ribitol teichoic acid (Brundish and Baddiley, 1968) and a minority of S. epidermidis strains have ribitol teichoic acids (Aasen and Oeding,197 1).…”

“…The wall teichoic acid of S. aureus is a ribitol-phosphate polymer substituted with 01-and P-linked N-acetylglucosamine residues which are the main antigenic determinants (Sanderson, Strominger and Nathenson, 1962;Torii, Kabat and Bezer, 1964). Cross-reactions can be expected in TAA assay, because many gram-positive and also some gram-negative bacteria have structures that are antigenically similar to 'those of the ribitol teichoic acids of S. aureus (Juergens, Sanderson and Strominger, 1963;Brundish and Baddiley, 1968;Kane and Karakawa, 1969;Aasen and Oeding, 1971;Argaman, Liu and Robbins, 1974;Gmeiner et al, 1977). In practice, however, false positive TAA test results have been fairly uncommon (Crowder and White, 1972;Larinkari et al, 1977, Leffell, Folds andWasilauskas, 1978;Martin, Greenberg and Wallace, 1979).…”

The Tortuous Journey of a Biochemist to Immunoland and What He Found There

“…Teichoic acid, a speciesspecific "ornament" attached to the cell wall of S. aureus, has an acetylglucosamine residue as a substitution on polyribitol phosphate. Rabbit antisera prepared against S. aureus cells agglutinated cell walls of this organism and were specific for α-acetylglucosaminyl ribitol, which accounted for only 15% of the total acetlyglucosamine, whereas the remaining 85% of β-acetylglucosaminyl ribitol was immunologically inert (17). Another excursion into immunobiology was a minisabbatical at the Wanderforschungs Institute (now the Max Planck Institute for Immunology) in Freiburg, Germany.…”