Analysis of serum cross-reactivity and cross-protection elicited by immunization with DNA vaccines against Streptococcus pneumoniae expressing PspA fragments from different clades.

ABSTRACT: Streptococcus pneumoniae is a major cause of disease, especially in developing countries, and cost-effective alternatives to the currently licensed vaccines are needed. We constructed DNA vaccines based on pneumococcal surface protein A (PspA), an antigen shown to induce protection against pneumococcal bacteremia. PspA fragments can be divided into three families, which can be subdivided into six clades, on the basis of PspA amino acid sequence divergence (S. K. Hollingshead, R. Becker, and D. E. Briles, Infect. Immun. 68:5889-5900, 2000). Since most clinical isolates belong to family 1 or family 2, PspA fragments from members of both of these families were analyzed. Vectors encoding the complete N-terminal regions of PspAs elicited significant humoral responses, and cross-reactivity was m

SUBMITTER: Miyaji EN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC128265 | biostudies-literature | 2002 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature