Molecular epidemiological characterization of Staphylococcus aureus isolates originating from food poisoning outbreaks that occurred in Tokyo,Japan

Staphylococcal food poisoning (SFP), one of the commonest food‐borne diseases, results from the ingestion of one or more staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs) produced in foods by Staphylococcus aureus. In the present study, 203 S. aureus strains originating from 83 outbreaks that had occurred in Tokyo were examined for their coagulase type and genotype of SEs to analyze their molecular epidemiological characteristics. The representative subsets of the 83 S. aureus isolates were analyzed by multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and S. aureus pathogenicity island (SaPI) scanning. The isolates were integrated into eight specific clonal complexes (CC) s; CC81, CC8, CC6, CC5, CC508, CC59, CC20 and CC30. The profiles of the coagulase type, SE/SEl genotype and the suspected type of enterotoxin‐encoding mobile genetic element (MGE) indicated a correlation with each CC. SaPI scanning showed fixed regularity between the distributions of genomic islands, including SaPIs, and the phylogenetic lineage based on MLST. These results indicate that the S. aureus isolates, which classified into eight CCs, have distinguishable properties concerning specific coagulase type, enterotoxin genotype and MGE type. Strains of S. aureus harboring these particular elements possess the potential to cause SFP.     

Nucleotide sequence analysis of the enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli Ent plasmid

We report here the complete nucleotide sequence of pEntH10407 (65 147 bp), an enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli enterotoxin plasmid (Ent plasmid), which is self-transmissible at low frequency. Within the plasmid, we identified 100 open reading frames (ORFs) which could encode polypeptides. These ORFs included regions encoding heat-labile (LT) and heat-stable (STIa) enterotoxins, regions encoding tools for plasmid replication and an incomplete tra (conjugation) region. The LT and STIa region was located 13.5 kb apart and was surrounded by three IS1s and an IS600 in opposite reading orientations, indicating that the enterotoxin genes may have been horizontally transferred into the plasmid. We identified a single RepFIIA replication region (2.0 kb) including RepA proteins similar to RepA1, RepA2, RepA3 and RepA4. The incomplete tra region was made up of 17 tra genes, which were nearly identical to the corresponding genes of R100, and showed evidence of multiple insertions of ISEc8 and ISEc8-like elements. These data suggest that pEntH10407 has the mosaic nature characteristic of bacterial virulence plasmids, which contains information about its evolution. Although the tra genes might originally have rendered pEntH10407 self-transferable to the same degree as R100, multiple insertion events have occurred in the tra region of pEntH10407 to make it less mobile. Another self-transmissible plasmid might help pEntH10407 to transfer efficiently into {"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"H10407","term_id":"875229","term_text":"H10407"}}H10407 strain. In this paper, we suggest another possibility: that the enterotoxigenic {"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"H10407","term_id":"875229","term_text":"H10407"}}H10407 strain might be formed by auto-transfer of pEntH10407 at a low rate using the incomplete tra region.     

Molecular cloning,expression and characterization of human mini antibodies against enterotoxin C1 of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Staphylococcus aureus</Emphasis>

We describe here the cloning, expression, and production of specific single-chain antibodies (scFv) against the recombinant enterotoxin C1 of Staphylococcus aureus. High-affinity scFv were selected from the phage library of human mini antibodies; afterwards, the cells of E. coli trxA gor double mutant were infected with a product obtained by fusion of DNA encoding of these mini antibodies with the trxA gene to induce soluble scFv synthesis in cell cytoplasm. The scFv obtained displayed high enterotoxin C1 affinity. Analysis for cross reactivity showed that mini antibodies interacted also with SEA- SEB-, SED-, SEE-, SEG-, and SEI-type enterotoxins, but they failed to interact with ricin, diphtheritic, and cholera toxins, or with both lethal and protective factors of the anthrax toxin. This property may be helpful in screening for staphylococcus enterotoxins.     

Secretory Expression and Purification of Recombinant <Emphasis Type="Italic">Escherichia coli</Emphasis> Heat-Labile Enterotoxin B Subunit and its Applications on Intranasal Vaccination of Hantavirus

In order to further study the B subunit of the Escherichia coli heat-labile enterotoxin (LTB), we obtained the LTB gene from pathogenic E. coli, cloned it into the pET22b (+) prokaryotic expression vector, and expressed it as a fusion protein with His tag in E. coli BL21 (DE3). The recombinant LTB was expressed and purified by Ni²⁺ affinity chromatography. The biological activity of the purified recombinant LTB was assayed in a series of monosialotetrahexosylganglioside (GM1)-ELISA experiments. The recombinant LTB (rLTB) was efficiently expressed under the induction of 10 g/l lactose at 37°C for 6 h and yielded up to 31% of the total bacterial protein. Fused with pelB signal peptide, rLTB was successfully localized to the periplasmic space. GM1-ELISA experiments showed that the rLTB obtained retains strong GM1 ganglioside-binding activity. The ELISA result of hantavirus nucleoprotein-specific secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) and IgG showed that intranasal administration of inactivated hantavirus with rLTB significantly increased the levels of hantavirus-specific sIgA (P < 0.01) and IgG (P < 0.01) in comparison with inactivated hatavirus alone. In summary, we have developed a method for the efficient secretory expression and purification of rLTB, and the inactivated hantavirus co-administered intranasally with rLTB could effectively induce both mucosal and humoral immune responses specific to hantavirus. Shouchun Cao and Ying Zhang contributed equally to this work.     

Molecular basis of cholera blood-group dependence and implications for a world characterized by climate change

Climate change has the potential to increase the threat of water-borne diseases, through rises in temperature and sea-level, and precipitation variability. Cholera poses a particular threat, and the need to develop better intervention tools is imminent. Cholera infections are particularly severe for blood group O individuals, who are less protected by the current vaccines. Here we derive a hypothesis as to the molecular origins of blood-group dependence of this disease, based on relevant epidemiological, clinical and molecular data, and give suggestions on how to plan prevention strategies, and develop novel and improved pharmaceuticals.     

抗Her-2-scFv-SEC2融合免疫毒素的构建和功能研究

用基因工程方法,将金黄色葡萄球菌肠毒素 C2 与抗人表皮生长因子受体 HER-2 单链抗体 scFv-B1,以一连接短肽连接,构建融合免疫毒素 B-L-SEC2,并用改进的新型表达载体 pASK75-EX,在大肠杆菌 BL21(ED3)中表达. 以不溶性包涵体形式表达的目的蛋白经变性后以镍离子螯和层析纯化,并以透析法进行复性. 流式细胞术和 MTT 实验结果表明,纯化复性的融合免疫毒素 B-L-SEC2,在体外具有与 HER-2 过表达的靶细胞 SK-Br-3 特异性结合的活性,并对该细胞产生显著的特异性生长抑制作用.     

黏膜免疫佐剂研究进展

黏膜免疫可以保护黏膜表面防止病毒入侵,也是对外周免疫病理性紊乱的一种有效的免疫处理方式。有效的黏膜免疫应答通常依赖于合适的佐剂,以引发机体从先天性免疫向适应性免疫过渡。目前,有3种细胞产物具有作为黏膜免疫佐剂的潜力,它们是ADP-核糖基化的肠毒素(霍乱毒素和大肠杆菌不耐热肠毒素)、人工合成的非甲基化的CpG二核苷酸序列,以及单磷酰基类脂A。本文综述了不同黏膜免疫佐剂的可能作用机制及其功能,概述了近期应用研究的进展。     

Removal of antibiotic resistance of live vaccine strain Escherichia coli MM-3 and evaluation of the immunogenicity of the new strain

MM-3 was a live vaccine strain candidate for protecting neonatal piglets from diarrhea.Designed in the 1980s,a high degree of protection from colibacillosis was afforded to piglets in a challengestudy and field trials.However MM-3 had a drawback of carrying the antibiotic resistance gene (chloramphenicolacetyltransferase gene,cat).The introduction of a host-plasmid balanced lethal system into the vaccine wasa good idea to solve the problem.The λ-Red recombination system was adopted in this study to realize thereplacement of cat by aspartate-semialdehyde dehydrogenase gene (asd) in the plasmid pMM085.The newplasmid named pMMASD was introduced into an Escherichia coli strain χ6097 and Salmonella typhimuriumχ4072 where the asd gene had been knocked out in their chromosomes.Cultured in an Erlenmeyer flask,expression levels of two antigens K88ac fimbriae and heat-labile enterotoxin B subunit (LTB) in cell lysatewere similar among MM-3,χ4072(pMMASD) and χ6097(pMMASD).However,χ4072(pMMASD) possessedthe more effective secretion mechanism to transport LTB enterotoxin into culture liquid.The relatively higherstability of pMMASD in Salmonella typhimurium χ4072 than that of pMM085 in MM-3 was determined bothin vitro in the absence of selective pressure,and in vivo following oral inoculation.Oral immunization ofBALB/c mice with χ4072(pMMASD) or χ6097(pMMASD) was sufficient to elicit IgA responses in mucosaltissues as well as systemic IgG antibody responses to the K88 fimbriae,while MM-3 failed to elicit specificantibody responses to K88 fimbriae in mucosal tissues.Among three live strains,only χ4072(pMMASD)could develop strong humoral responses against LTB enterotoxin.The results suggest that χ4072(pMMASD)is expected to be a promising live vaccine strain.     

产肠毒素大肠杆菌亚单位疫苗3STaM(G)-K99和3STaM(S)-K99的纯化及其免疫学性质的研究

产肠毒素大肠杆菌(ETEC)是一种导致新生犊牛和仔猪腹泻的主要病原体之一.ETEC的毒力因子主要有黏附素(CFs)、不耐热性肠毒素(LT)和耐热性肠毒素(ST)三种.在前期研究中,利用PCR和酶切连接技术成功构建了两种ETEC亚单位疫苗3STaM (G)-K99和3STaM(S)-K99,且在大肠杆菌中获得高效表达.本研究利用阴离子交换层析纯化融合蛋白3STaM (G)-K99 and 3STaM(S)-K99,辅以弗氏佐剂免疫新西兰大白兔,通过Elisa分析其免疫学性质,并利用肠毒素中和实验在昆明系乳鼠中评价其激发抗STa中和抗体的能力.实验结果表明:亚单位疫苗3STaM(G)-K99 and 3STaM (S)-K99能够激发相对较高水平、可针对天然STa、ETEC和融合蛋白STa-K99的特异性抗体.其次,亚单位疫苗中STa突变体(STaM)组分的肠毒素活性显著降低,且其所激发的特异性抗体属于中和抗体,能有效抑制天然STa的肠毒素活性.亚单位疫苗3STaM (G)-K99 and 3STaM(S)-K99为研制预防ETEC感染性腹泻的多价基因工程疫苗提供了基本素材和理论指导.