A rationally designed oral vaccine induces immunoglobulin A in the murine gut that directs the evolution of attenuated Salmonella variants.

ABSTRACT: The ability of gut bacterial pathogens to escape immunity by antigenic variation-particularly via changes to surface-exposed antigens-is a major barrier to immune clearance¹. However, not all variants are equally fit in all environments^2,3. It should therefore be possible to exploit such immune escape mechanisms to direct an evolutionary trade-off. Here, we demonstrate this phenomenon using Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Typhimurium (S.Tm). A dominant surface antigen of S.Tm is its O-antigen: a long, repetitive glycan that can be rapidly varied by mutations in biosynthetic pathways or by phase variation^4,5. We quantified the selective advantage of O-antigen variants in the presence and absence of O-antigen-specific immunoglobulin A and iden

SUBMITTER: Diard M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7611113 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature