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Infection with a Nonencapsulated Bacillus anthracis Strain in Rabbits—The Role of Bacterial Adhesion and the Potential for a Safe Live Attenuated Vaccine

Nonencapsulated (∆pXO2) Bacillus anthracis strains are commonly used as vaccines and for anthrax research, mainly in the mouse model. Previously, we demonstrated that the infection of rabbits, intranasally or subcutaneously, with the spores of a fully virulent strain results in the systemic dissemin...

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Autores principales: Glinert, Itai, Weiss, Shay, Sittner, Assa, Bar-David, Elad, Ben-Shmuel, Amir, Schlomovitz, Josef, Kobiler, David, Levy, Haim
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6316610/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30513757
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins10120506
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author Glinert, Itai
Weiss, Shay
Sittner, Assa
Bar-David, Elad
Ben-Shmuel, Amir
Schlomovitz, Josef
Kobiler, David
Levy, Haim
author_facet Glinert, Itai
Weiss, Shay
Sittner, Assa
Bar-David, Elad
Ben-Shmuel, Amir
Schlomovitz, Josef
Kobiler, David
Levy, Haim
author_sort Glinert, Itai
collection PubMed
description Nonencapsulated (∆pXO2) Bacillus anthracis strains are commonly used as vaccines and for anthrax research, mainly in the mouse model. Previously, we demonstrated that the infection of rabbits, intranasally or subcutaneously, with the spores of a fully virulent strain results in the systemic dissemination of the bacteria, meningitis, and death, whereas ∆pXO2 strains are fully attenuated in this animal model. We used the intravenous inoculation of rabbits to study the pathogenicity of the ∆pXO2 strain infection. Bacteremia, brain bacterial burden, and pathology were used as criteria to compare the Vollum∆pXO2 disease to the wild type Vollum infection. To test the role of adhesion in the virulence of Vollum∆pXO2, we deleted the major adhesion protein BslA and tested the virulence and immunogenicity of this mutant. We found that 50% of the rabbits succumb to Vollum∆pXO2 strain following i.v. infection, a death that was accompanied with significant neurological symptoms. Pathology revealed severe brain infection coupled with an atypical massive bacterial growth into the parenchyma. Contrary to the Vollum strain, deletion of the bslA gene fully attenuated the ∆pXO2 strain. Though the Vollum∆pXO2 cannot serve as a model for B. anthracis pathogenicity in rabbits, deletion of the bslA gene prevents central nervous system (CNS) infections, possibly leading to the generation of a safer vaccine.
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spelling pubmed-63166102019-01-11 Infection with a Nonencapsulated Bacillus anthracis Strain in Rabbits—The Role of Bacterial Adhesion and the Potential for a Safe Live Attenuated Vaccine Glinert, Itai Weiss, Shay Sittner, Assa Bar-David, Elad Ben-Shmuel, Amir Schlomovitz, Josef Kobiler, David Levy, Haim Toxins (Basel) Article Nonencapsulated (∆pXO2) Bacillus anthracis strains are commonly used as vaccines and for anthrax research, mainly in the mouse model. Previously, we demonstrated that the infection of rabbits, intranasally or subcutaneously, with the spores of a fully virulent strain results in the systemic dissemination of the bacteria, meningitis, and death, whereas ∆pXO2 strains are fully attenuated in this animal model. We used the intravenous inoculation of rabbits to study the pathogenicity of the ∆pXO2 strain infection. Bacteremia, brain bacterial burden, and pathology were used as criteria to compare the Vollum∆pXO2 disease to the wild type Vollum infection. To test the role of adhesion in the virulence of Vollum∆pXO2, we deleted the major adhesion protein BslA and tested the virulence and immunogenicity of this mutant. We found that 50% of the rabbits succumb to Vollum∆pXO2 strain following i.v. infection, a death that was accompanied with significant neurological symptoms. Pathology revealed severe brain infection coupled with an atypical massive bacterial growth into the parenchyma. Contrary to the Vollum strain, deletion of the bslA gene fully attenuated the ∆pXO2 strain. Though the Vollum∆pXO2 cannot serve as a model for B. anthracis pathogenicity in rabbits, deletion of the bslA gene prevents central nervous system (CNS) infections, possibly leading to the generation of a safer vaccine. MDPI 2018-12-01 /pmc/articles/PMC6316610/ /pubmed/30513757 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins10120506 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Glinert, Itai
Weiss, Shay
Sittner, Assa
Bar-David, Elad
Ben-Shmuel, Amir
Schlomovitz, Josef
Kobiler, David
Levy, Haim
Infection with a Nonencapsulated Bacillus anthracis Strain in Rabbits—The Role of Bacterial Adhesion and the Potential for a Safe Live Attenuated Vaccine
title Infection with a Nonencapsulated Bacillus anthracis Strain in Rabbits—The Role of Bacterial Adhesion and the Potential for a Safe Live Attenuated Vaccine
title_full Infection with a Nonencapsulated Bacillus anthracis Strain in Rabbits—The Role of Bacterial Adhesion and the Potential for a Safe Live Attenuated Vaccine
title_fullStr Infection with a Nonencapsulated Bacillus anthracis Strain in Rabbits—The Role of Bacterial Adhesion and the Potential for a Safe Live Attenuated Vaccine
title_full_unstemmed Infection with a Nonencapsulated Bacillus anthracis Strain in Rabbits—The Role of Bacterial Adhesion and the Potential for a Safe Live Attenuated Vaccine
title_short Infection with a Nonencapsulated Bacillus anthracis Strain in Rabbits—The Role of Bacterial Adhesion and the Potential for a Safe Live Attenuated Vaccine
title_sort infection with a nonencapsulated bacillus anthracis strain in rabbits—the role of bacterial adhesion and the potential for a safe live attenuated vaccine
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6316610/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30513757
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins10120506
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