Screening of potential vaccine candidates against pathogenic Brucella spp. using compositive reverse vaccinology

Brucella spp. are Gram-negative, facultative intracellular bacteria that cause brucellosis in humans and various animals. The threat of brucellosis has increased, yet currently available live attenuated vaccines still have drawbacks. Therefore, subunit vaccines, produced using protein antigens and having the advantage of being safe, cost-effective and efficacious, are urgently needed. In this study, we used core proteome analysis and a compositive RV methodology to screen potential broad-spectrum antigens against 213 pathogenic strains of Brucella spp. with worldwide geographic distribution. Candidate proteins were scored according to six biological features: subcellular localization, antigen similarity, antigenicity, mature epitope density, virulence, and adhesion probability. In the RV analysis, a total 32 candidate antigens were picked out. Of these, three proteins were selected for assessment of immunogenicity and preliminary protection in a mouse model: outer membrane protein Omp19 (used as a positive control), type IV secretion system (T4SS) protein VirB8, and type I secretion system (T1SS) protein HlyD. These three antigens with a high degree of conservation could induce specific humoral and cellular immune responses. Omp19, VirB8 and HlyD could substantially reduce the organ bacterial load of B. abortus S19 in mice and provide varying degrees of protection. In this study, we demonstrated the effectiveness of this unique strategy for the screening of potential broad-spectrum antigens against Brucella. Further evaluation is needed to identify the levels of protection conferred by the vaccine antigens against wild-type pathogenic Brucella species challenge. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13567-021-00939-5.