Immunization against a saccharide epitope accelerates clearance of experimental gonococcal infection.

ABSTRACT: The emergence of ceftriaxone-resistant strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae may herald an era of untreatable gonorrhea. Vaccines against this infection are urgently needed. The 2C7 epitope is a conserved oligosaccharide (OS) structure, a part of lipooligosaccharide (LOS) on N gonorrhoeae. The epitope is expressed by 94% of gonococci that reside in the human genital tract (in vivo) and by 95% of first passaged isolates. Absence of the 2C7 epitope shortens the time of gonococcal carriage in a mouse model of genital infection. To circumvent the limitations of saccharide immunogens in producing long lived immune responses, previously we developed a peptide mimic (called PEP1) as an immunologic surrogate of the 2C7-OS epitope and reconfigured it into a multi-antigenic peptide, (MAP1). To test vacci

SUBMITTER: Gulati S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3757034 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature