Properties of the immunogenic and sensitizing activities of Bordetella pertussis in mice

<i>Bordetella pertussis</i> as a Beta-Adrenergic Blocking Agent

“…In view of these findings, and because /5-adrenergic blocking agents are known to enhance the sensitivity of guinea pigs to histamine [28,29], we decided to reinvestigate the effect of B. pertussis on the sensitivity of guinea pigs to a histamine challenge. Our results indicate that it is unlike ly that pertussis vaccine can induce any marked degree of histamine-sen sitization in guinea pigs, comparable with that seen in mice and rats [5,22]. This is evident from the barely significant and by no means impres sive mortality results in pertussis-vaccinated guinea pigs challenged with histamine (table IV), and the similarity in respiratory responses between pertussis-treated and control guinea pigs receiving histamine ( fig.…”

“…We have previously shown that in mice endo toxin can induce a feeble and irregular sensitization to histamine which appears qualitatively and quantitatively different from that elicited by HSF [21], It is conceivable that the endotoxin content of the vaccine was responsible for the slightly higher histamine mortality observed in pertus sis-vaccinated guinea pigs in the present study, as well as for the reported effects of B. pertussis in other species [3,5,10,13,26]. Since adrenergic mechanisms appear to play an important role in the action of both HSF and endotoxin [9,21,22], the possible contribution of the latter in revers ing the actions of catecholamines in pertussis-vaccinated guinea pigs and rabbits, as reported by A rora and Sanyal [3], should be considered. There are other parallels in which two different B. pertussis components are able to exert a similar effect in different species.…”

“…It should be noted that the timing of the injections appears crucial in demonstrating the synergistic toxicity shown in table III. Similar to its effect on other stressor agents [19,22], HSF should be injected several days prior to challenge in order to exert a maximum sensitizing effect. Conversely, we have found that propranolol induces optimal sensitization to endotoxin when injected shortly after endotoxin.…”

“…It has been shown that both B. pertussis and /7-adrenergic blocking agents, such as propranolol, can attenuate or abolish several of the effects normally elicit ed by epinephrine including its hyperglycemic, free fatty acid-mobilizing, as well as its positive chronotropic effects [8,11,25]. Similarly, both B. pertussis and propranolol enhance the sensitivity of mice to pharmacolog ical agents such as histamine, serotonin, and bradykinin [17,19,22], Our results indicate that the sensitizing actions shared by HSF and proprano lol in mice can be extended to include a variety of additional stressful stimuli, including experimental immune hemolytic anemia, cold stress, and endotoxin.…”

“…Although several possible mechanisms of HSF action have been explored in detail [4,8,19], accumulated evidence suggests that it may exert its sensitizing effects by inducing a blockade of the /9-adrenergic receptors of the autonomic nervous system. It has been shown that yS-adrenergic blocking agents, such as propranolol, can be successfully substituted for HSF in altering physiological reactivity, as well as in en hancing the susceptibility of mice to pharmacological agents, such as his tamine, serotonin and bradykinin [17,19,22], We considered it of inter est to determine whether both HSF and propranolol could similarly heighten the sensitivity of mice to other forms of stressful stimuli. In this paper we report the effect of extracted HSF, and propranolol, on the sus ceptibility of mice to experimental immune hemolytic anemia, hypo thermic stress, and bacterial endotoxin.…”