Published in

Nature Research, npj Vaccines, 1(7), 2022

DOI: 10.1038/s41541-022-00572-z

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A highly immunogenic vaccine platform against encapsulated pathogens using chimeric probiotic Escherichia coli membrane vesicles

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

AbstractVaccines against infectious diseases should elicit potent and long-lasting immunity, ideally even in those with age-related decline in immune response. Here we report a rational polysaccharide vaccine platform using probiotic Escherichia coli-derived membrane vesicles (MVs). First, we constructed a probiotic E. coli clone harboring the genetic locus responsible for biogenesis of serotype 14 pneumococcal capsular polysaccharides (CPS14) as a model antigen. CPS14 was found to be polymerized and mainly localized on the outer membrane of the E. coli cells. The glycine-induced MVs displayed the exogenous CPS14 at high density on the outermost surface, on which the CPS14 moiety was covalently tethered to a lipid A-core oligosaccharide anchor. In in vivo immunization experiments, CPS14+MVs, but not a mixture of free CPS14 and empty MVs, strongly elicited IgG class-switch recombination with a Th1/Th2-balanced IgG subclass distribution without any adjuvant. In addition, CPS14+MVs were structurally stable with heat treatment and immunization with the heat-treated MVs-elicited CPS14-specific antibody responses in mouse serum to levels comparable to those of non-treated CPS14+MVs. Notably, the immunogenicity of CPS14+MVs was significantly stronger than those of two currently licensed vaccines against pneumococci. The CPS14+MV-elicited humoral immune responses persisted for 1 year in both blood and lung. Furthermore, the CPS14+MV vaccine was widely efficacious in mice of different ages. Even in aged mice, vaccination resulted in robust production of CPS14-specific IgG that bound to the pneumococcal cell surface. Taken together, the present probiotic E. coli MVs-based vaccine platform offers a promising, generalizable solution against encapsulated pathogens.