IgM specific to lipopolysaccharide of Vibrio cholerae is a surrogate antibody isotype responsible for serum vibriocidal activity

Serum vibriocidal antibody assays have long been used to evaluate the immunogenicity of cholera vaccines formulated with killed whole-cell Vibrio cholerae. However, the antibody isotypes responsible for the serum vibriocidal activity are not fully characterized. In this study, we examined 20 clinical serum samples obtained from human subjects who had been vaccinated with a killed, whole-cell cholera vaccine and a positive control, human convalescent sera with high vibriocidal activity, to determine which isotype antibody is associated with the vibriocidal activity. Antibody isotypes from pooled convalescent sera were fractionated by size-exclusion column chromatography, and the major vibriocidal activity was detected in the IgM fraction. Depletion of IgM antibodies in the convalescent sera produced a significant (P<0.05) decrease in vibriocidal activity (16-fold decrease), whereas only a small change was observed with depletion of IgG or IgA. In addition, anti-LPS IgM antibody showed the highest correlation with vibriocidal activity (Spearman correlation coefficient r = 0.846) among antibody isotypes against heat-killed V. cholerae, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), or major outer membrane protein (Omp U), while total IgG, IgA, or IgM antibody level was not correlated with vibriocidal activity in the 20 human clinical serum samples. Furthermore, human convalescent sera significantly (P<0.001) inhibited the attachment of V. cholerae to HT-29, a human intestinal epithelial cell in vitro. Interestingly, IgM-depleted convalescent sera could not effectively inhibit bacterial adherence compared with non-depleted sera (P<0.05). Finally, bacterial adhesion was significantly inhibited by sera with high vibriocidal titer compared with low-titer sera (P = 0.014). Collectively, we demonstrated that anti-V. cholerae LPS IgM is highly correlated with serum vibriocidal activity and it could be a surrogate antibody isotype representing protective antibodies against V. cholerae.