Pertussis vaccines: state-of-the-art and future trends.

Bordetella pertussis is the causative agent of whooping cough (pertussis) which is a worldwide vaccine preventable acute respiratory illness that predominantly involves infants. The reactogenicity of whole-cell (Pw) vaccines and the difficulty of their consistent production have led to the development of acellular pertussis (Pa) vaccines. However, despite high vaccination coverage using either Pw or Pa and introduction of adolescent and adult vaccines with reduced antigen content, there are still reports about the circulation of the microorganism in populations, morbidity in infants and increasing incidence of pertussis among adolescent and adults who transmit the infection to yet unimmunized infants. Waning vaccine-induced immunity and antigenic divergence in circulating strains seem to be the major problems accounting for resurgence of pertussis. Considering the need for new vaccination strategies, improvement of current Pa vaccines by including new virulence factors would probably be the most rationale strategy. Recent advances in B. pertussis proteomics, subproteomics and immunoproteomics greatly aided in identifying novel antigens of the pathogen. Future studies involving quantitative transcriptomic and proteomic profiling of host-B. pertussis interactions, studying gene expression in vivo and reverse vaccinology will also be very promising approaches and tools to develop pertussis vaccines inducing long term immunity.

A comprehensive analysis of Bordetella pertussis surface proteome and identification of new immunogenic proteins.

Whooping cough, caused by the gram negative pathogen Bordetella pertussis, is a worldwide acute respiratory disease that predominantly involves infants. In the present study, surface proteins of B. pertussis Tohama I and Saadet strains were identified by using 2DE followed by MALDI-TOF-MS/MS analysis and also geLC-MS/MS. With these approaches it was possible to identify 45 and 226 proteins, respectively. When surface proteins of the strains were separated by 2DE and analyzed by Western blotting for their reactivity, a total of 27 immunogenic spots which correspond to 11 different gene products were determined. Glutamine-binding periplasmic protein, leu/ile/val-binding protein, one putative exported protein, and iron-superoxide dismutase (Fe-SOD) were found as immunogenic for the first time in Bordetella. Of a total of 226 proteins identified, 16 were differentially expressed in B. pertussis Saadet and Tohama I strains. Five proteins were expressed only in Saadet (adhesin, chaperone protein DnaJ, fimbrial protein FimX, putative secreted protein Bsp22 and putative universal stress protein), and two (ABC transporter substrate-binding protein and a putative binding protein-dependent transport periplasmic protein) only in Tohama I.

Immunoproteomic analysis of Bordetella pertussis and identification of new immunogenic proteins.

Bordetella pertussis is the causative agent of highly communicable respiratory infection whooping cough (pertussis) which remains one of the world's leading causes of vaccine-preventable deaths. In the present study, total soluble proteins extracted from two B. pertussis strains, Tohama I and the local isolate Saadet were separated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and analyzed by Western blotting for their reactivity with the antisera obtained from the mice immunized with inactivated whole cells as well as those collected from the mice challenged intraperitoneally with live cells of each strain. Of a total of 25 immunogenic proteins identified, 21 were shown to be the novel antigens for B. pertussis.