Cargando…

CRISPR/Cas9 Approach to Generate an Auxotrophic BCG Strain for Unmarked Expression of LTAK63 Adjuvant: A Tuberculosis Vaccine Candidate

Tuberculosis is one of the deadliest infectious diseases and a huge healthcare burden in many countries. New vaccines, including recombinant BCG-based candidates, are currently under evaluation in clinical trials. Our group previously showed that a recombinant BCG expressing LTAK63 (rBCG-LTAK63), a...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Moraes, Luana, Trentini, Monalisa Martins, Fousteris, Dimitrios, Eto, Silas Fernandes, Chudzinski-Tavassi, Ana Marisa, Leite, Luciana Cezar de Cerqueira, Kanno, Alex Issamu
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9005855/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35432328
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.867195
Descripción
Sumario:Tuberculosis is one of the deadliest infectious diseases and a huge healthcare burden in many countries. New vaccines, including recombinant BCG-based candidates, are currently under evaluation in clinical trials. Our group previously showed that a recombinant BCG expressing LTAK63 (rBCG-LTAK63), a genetically detoxified subunit A of heat-labile toxin (LT) from Escherichia coli, induces improved protection against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) in mouse models. This construct uses a traditional antibiotic resistance marker to enable heterologous expression. In order to avoid the use of these markers, not appropriate for human vaccines, we used CRISPR/Cas9 to generate unmarked mutations in the lysA gene, thus obtaining a lysine auxotrophic BCG strain. A mycobacterial vector carrying lysA and ltak63 gene was used to complement the auxotrophic BCG which co-expressed the LTAK63 antigen (rBCGΔ-LTAK63) at comparable levels to the original construct. The intranasal challenge with Mtb confirmed the superior protection induced by rBCGΔ-LTAK63 compared to wild-type BCG. Furthermore, mice immunized with rBCGΔ-LTAK63 showed improved lung function. In this work we showed the practical application of CRISPR/Cas9 in the tuberculosis vaccine development field.