Pertussis Toxin: The Cause of the Harmful Effects and Prolonged Immunity of Whooping Cough. A Hypothesis

Rabbit nasopharyngeal colonization byBordetella pertussis: the effects of immunization on clearance and on serum and nasal antibody levels

“…Holt (1972) postulated that prophylactic immunity to whooping cough is mediated by local antibody that can prevent adhesion of B. pertussis. More recently it has been suggested that FHA might be the surface antigen to which anti-attachment antibody is directed (Pittman, 1979;Sato et al 1981). Munoz, Arai & Cole (1981) proposed that any protective activity of FHA in the mouse intracerebral challenge test was due to LPF present at low levels in the FHA.…”

“…Munoz, Arai & Cole (1981) proposed that any protective activity of FHA in the mouse intracerebral challenge test was due to LPF present at low levels in the FHA. Immune response to LPF, considered as a second line of defence (Pittman, 1979), is unlikely to be involved in preventing colonization in the rabbit, but it is interesting to note that the FHA preparation failed to elicit any anti-LPF response. The protection afforded by FHA to rabbits of group VI is therefore independent of LPF as antigen.…”

Distribution of immunity to pertussis in the population of England and Wales

“…Many authors have commented upon the complexity of the immune response in pertussis, and how different responses may reflect protection against infection or against clinical disease (Pittman, 1979;Wardlaw & Parton, 1983). In addition there may be important quantitative variation in terms of protection against different levels of exposure or against different severities of disease.…”

Role of Pertussigen (Pertussis Toxin) on the Mouse Protective Activity of Vaccines Made from Bordetella Species

“…In some countries, vaccination of children was discontinued due to these reactions, and as a result, the cases of whooping cough invariably increased (17,18,47). It is assumed that the substance in B. pertussis cells responsible for these undesirable reactions is pertussigen [pertussis 341 J. J. MUNOZ M. G. PEACOCK toxin (Ptx)], but it is also believed that Ptx is needed to produce effective vaccines (32,33). In mice, Ptx induces a pronounced leukocytosis, increases susceptibility to histamine and other vasoactive amines, enhances production of antibodies to antigens given with it, promotes delayed type hypersensitivity and autoimmunity, increases production of the IgE class of immunoglobulins, and susceptibility to anaphylaxis (22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)46).…”

“…Detoxified Ptx has been selected as one of the components in these vaccines because it protects mice against intracerebral (ic) and aerosol induced infections with virulent B. pertussis (22,41,42,47), and because the toxin has been postulated to be responsible for the symptomatology of whooping cough (20,32,33,47). Furthermore, the mouse protection test, which employs the ic challenge (16), is a required test in various countries for determining the protective potency of pertussis vaccines (20,31), and vaccines without Ptx do not induce adequate protection against ic challenge in mice (23,28,38).…”