Glycobiology Advance Access published online on March 6, 2009
Glycobiology, doi:10.1093/glycob/cwp036
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Secondary cell wall polysaccharides of Bacillus anthracis are antigens that contain specific epitopes which cross-react with three pathogenic Bacillus cereus strains that caused severe disease, and other epitopes common to all the Bacillus cereus strains tested
1 Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, University of Georgia, 315 Riverbend Road, Athens, GA 30602
2 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd., MS D-11, Atlanta, GA 30333
3 Departments of Microbiology and Biotechnology, University of Tübingen, D72076 Tübingen, FRG
* Address correspondence to: Russell W. Carlson, Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, TEL 706-542-4439; FAX 706-542-4412; EMAIL: rcarlson{at}ccrc.uga.edu
Received on January 20, 2009; accepted on February 27, 2009
The immunoreactivities of hydrogen fluoride- (HF) released cell wall polysaccharides (HF-PSs) from selected Bacillus anthracis and Bacillus cereus strains were compared using antisera against live and killed B. anthracis spores. These antisera bound to the HF-PSs from B. anthracis and from three clinical B. cereus isolates (G9241, 03BB87 and 03BB102) obtained from cases of severe or fatal human pneumonia but did not bind the HF-PSs from the closely related B. cereus ATCC 10987 or from B. cereus type strain ATCC 14579. Antiserum against a keyhole limpet hemocyanin conjugate of the B. anthracis HF-PS (HF-PS-KLH) also bound HF-PSs and cell walls from B. anthracis and the three clinical B. cereus isolates, and B. anthracis spores. These results indicate that the B. anthracis HF-PS is an antigen in both B. anthracis cell walls and spores, and that it shares cross-reactive, and possibly pathogenicity-related, epitopes with three clinical B. cereus isolates that caused severe disease. The anti-HF-PS-KLH antiserum cross-reacted with the bovine serum albumin (BSA)-conjugates of all B. anthracis and all B. cereus HF-PSs tested, including those from non-clinical B. cereus ATCC 10987 and ATCC 14579 strains. Finally, the serum of vaccinated (anthrax vaccine adsorbed [AVA]) Rhesus macaques that survived inhalation anthrax contained IgG antibodies that bound the B. anthracis HF-PS-KLH conjugate. These data indicate that HF-PSs from the cell walls of the bacilli tested here are (i) antigens that contain (ii) a potentially virulence-associated carbohydrate antigen motif, and (iii) another antigenic determinant that is common to B. cereus strains.
Key words: Bacillus cereus / Bacillus anthracis / polysaccharides / antigens / specificity
The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Patent Pending - University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc. and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A portion of the results presented in this paper were obtained as part of Christine Leoff's doctoral thesis work (http://tobias-lib.ub.uni-tuebingen.de/volltexte/2009/3705/).
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