Immunization with Alpha-Toxin Toxoid Protects the Cornea against Tissue Damage during Experimental Staphylococcus aureus Keratitis

Abstract

Alpha-toxin is a major virulence factor in Staphylococcus aureus keratitis. Active or passive immunization with alpha-toxin toxoid could protect against corneal damage. Results show that either form of immunization did not kill bacteria but did significantly protect against corneal pathology, especially epithelial erosion.

Comparative Opsonic and Protective Activities of Staphylococcus aureus Conjugate Vaccines Containing Native or Deacetylated Staphylococcal Poly- N -Acetyl-β-(1-6)-Glucosamine

“…S. aureus causes diverse infections such as endocarditis, septic arthritis, osteomyelitis, meningitis, skin infections, and abscesses (1,2,7,16,23,27) and there appears to be an increase in the recognition of community-acquired S. aureus infections, often involving methicillin-resistant S. aureus strains (16,27). It is now well appreciated that the emergence of antibiotic resistance among staphylococcal isolates has made the treatment of these infections increasingly difficult, which has amplified the call for new approaches to treat and prevent staphylococcal infections, such as immunotherapy.Ongoing efforts to design vaccines for S. aureus have targeted various virulence factors of this organism, including capsular polysaccharides (CP) (i.e., CP serotypes 5 and 8) (8, 9), cell wall-associated proteins (i.e., clumping factor A, fibronectin binding proteins, and collagen binding protein) (11,36,48), toxins (i.e., alpha-toxin, enterotoxins, and toxic shock syndrome toxin 1) (6,14,15,21,33), and the surface-associated polysaccharide, poly-N-acetyl-␤-(1-6)-glucosamine (PNAG) (25,26,29). PNAG is synthesized by enzymes encoded in the intercellular adhesin (ica) locus (12), which occurs not only in most clinical isolates of S. aureus but also in the majority of clinical isolates of CoNS (28,31,34,53), making PNAG an attractive vaccine candidate.…”

Elimination of a bacterial pore‐forming toxin by sequential endocytosis and exocytosis

“…Staphylococcus aureus a-toxin is the archetype of pore-forming toxins (PFT) [1][2][3], and an important virulence factor of S. aureus [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. It is secreted as a monomer of 34 kDa and binds to a wide variety of target cells.…”

Immunization with Polyamine Transport Protein PotD Protects Mice against Systemic Infection with Streptococcus pneumoniae

“…Eight-to 12-week-old New Zealand White rabbits were immunized subcutaneously with recombinant PotD at biweekly intervals, and subsequently serum was collected by ear bleeding as previously described (14). Pooled rabbit antiserum was titrated by ELISA as described above.…”