An intermolecular mechanism of T cell help for the production of antibodies to the bacterial pathogen, Chlamydia trachomatis

J E Allen, R S Stephens

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Antibodies that neutralize infectivity are directed at the antigenically variant major outer membrane protein (MOMP) of Chlamydia trachomatis. A vaccine for chlamydia will need to include T cell determinants that elicit T helper (Th) cells which provide help to MOMP-specific B cells. A limited number of determinants on MOMP are able to elicit Th cells and sequence diversity in the MOMP molecule may alter T cell recognition of these determinants. We investigated whether two sequence invariant proteins of C. trachomatis that are both abundant and immunogenic could elicit T cell help for the production of antibody to MOMP. We found that outer membrane protein 2 (OMP2) but not outer membrane protein 3 (OMP3) was able to prime BALB/c mice for an anamnestic anti-MOMP response following boost with the intact organism. This demonstration of an intermolecular mechanism of T cell help in a bacterial system has important implications for the development of a chlamydial vaccine as well as the design of vaccines for other antigenically variant non-viral pathogens.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1169-72
Number of pages4
JournalEuropean Journal of Immunology
Volume23
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1993

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • Animals
  • Antibodies, Bacterial
  • Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins
  • Base Sequence
  • Chlamydia trachomatis
  • Glutathione Transferase
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred BALB C
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins
  • T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer

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