| 1. |
- Davids, Barbara J., et al.
(författare)
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Identification of Conserved Candidate Vaccine Antigens in the Surface Proteome of Giardia lamblia
- 2019
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Ingår i: Infection and Immunity. - : AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY. - 0019-9567 .- 1098-5522. ; 87:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Giardia lamblia, one of the most common protozoal infections of the human intestine, is an important worldwide cause of diarrheal disease, malabsorption, malnutrition, delayed cognitive development in children, and protracted postinfectious syndromes. Despite its medical importance, no human vaccine is available against giardiasis. A crude veterinary vaccine has been developed, and experimental vaccines based on expression of multiple variant-specific surface proteins have been reported, but poorly defined vaccine components and excessive antigen variability are problematic for pharmaceutical vaccine production. To expand the repertoire of antigen candidates for vaccines, we reasoned that surface proteins may provide an enriched source of such antigens since key host effectors, such as secretory IgA, can directly bind to such antigens in the intestinal lumen and interfere with epithelial attachment. Here, we have applied a proteomics approach to identify 23 novel surface antigens of G. lamblia that show >90% amino acid sequence identity between the two human-pathogenic genetic assemblages (A and B) of the parasite. Surface localization of a representative subset of these proteins was confirmed by immunostaining. Four selected proteins, uridine phosphorylase-like protein-1, protein 21.1 (GL50803_ 27925), alpha 1-giardin, and alpha 11-giardin, were subsequently produced in recombinant form and shown to be immunogenic in mice and G. lamblia-infected humans and confer protection against G. lamblia infection upon intranasal immunization in rodent models of giardiasis. These results demonstrate that identification of conserved surface antigens provides a powerful approach for overcoming a key rate-limiting step in the design and construction of an effective vaccine against giardiasis.
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| 2. |
- Hanevik, Kurt, et al.
(författare)
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Giardia-specific cellular immune responses in post-giardiasis chronic fatigue syndrome
- 2017
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Ingår i: BMC Immunology. - : BIOMED CENTRAL LTD. - 1471-2172. ; 18
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: The role of pathogen specific cellular immune responses against the eliciting pathogen in development of post-infectious chronic fatigue syndrome (PI-CFS) is not known and such studies are difficult to perform. The aim of this study was to evaluate specific anti-Giardia cellular immunity in cases that developed CFS after Giardia infection compared to cases that recovered well. Patients reporting chronic fatigue in a questionnaire study three years after a Giardia outbreak were clinically evaluated five years after the outbreak and grouped according to Fukuda criteria for CFS and idiopathic chronic fatigue. Giardia specific immune responses were evaluated in 39 of these patients by proliferation assay, T cell activation and cytokine release analysis. 20 Giardia exposed non-fatigued individuals and 10 healthy unexposed individuals were recruited as controls. Results: Patients were clinically classified into CFS (n = 15), idiopathic chronic fatigue (n = 5), fatigue from other causes (n = 9) and recovered from fatigue (n = 10). There were statistically significant antigen specific differences between these Giardia exposed groups and unexposed controls. However, we did not find differences between the Giardia exposed fatigue classification groups with regard to CD4 T cell activation, proliferation or cytokine levels in 6 days cultured PBMCs. Interestingly, sCD40L was increased in patients with PI-CFS and other persons with fatigue after Giardia infection compared to the non-fatigued group, and correlated well with fatigue levels at the time of sampling. Conclusion: Our data show antigen specific cellular immune responses in the groups previously exposed to Giardia and increased sCD40L in fatigued patients.
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| 3. |
- Hanevik, Kurt, et al.
(författare)
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Human Cellular Immune Response Against Giardia lamblia 5 Years After Acute Giardiasis
- 2011
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Ingår i: Journal of Infectious Diseases. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0022-1899 .- 1537-6613. ; 204:11, s. 1779-1786
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background. Clinical and epidemiological studies have suggested the development of acquired immunity in individuals previously infected with Giardia lamblia. However, there are no data on the long-term cellular immunity and genotype cross-reactivity. An outbreak of assemblage B giardiasis in a nonendemic area made it possible to evaluate the long-term cellular mediated immunity and its specificity toward the 2 Giardia assemblages known to infect humans. Methods. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 19 individuals infected with Giardia assemblage B 5 years previously and from 10 uninfected controls were cultured with antigens from assemblage A and B Giardia trophozoites for 6 days. Cell-mediated immunity was measured by a (3)H-thymidine proliferation assay and flow cytometric analysis of activation markers HLA-DR, CD45RO, CD25, and CD26 in T-cell subsets. Results. Proliferation responses were significantly elevated in the group previously exposed to Giardia for nearly all Giardia antigens tested. Individual responses toward Giardia trophozoite whole cell, cytosolic, and excretory-secretory antigens from both assemblages correlated well. Activation marker responses were mainly seen in CD4 T cells. Conclusions. G. lamblia infection induces long-term, albeit variable, cellular immune responses that are not assemblage specific and that are largely driven by CD4 T-cell activation.
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| 4. |
- Kjellin, Jonas, et al.
(författare)
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Colicins and T6SS-based competition systems enhance enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) competitiveness
- 2024
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Ingår i: Gut microbes. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1949-0976 .- 1949-0984. ; 16:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Diarrheal diseases are still a significant problem for humankind, causing approximately half a million deaths annually. To cause diarrhea, enteric bacterial pathogens must first colonize the gut, which is a niche occupied by the normal bacterial microbiota. Therefore, the ability of pathogenic bacteria to inhibit the growth of other bacteria can facilitate the colonization process. Although enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is one of the major causative agents of diarrheal diseases, little is known about the competition systems found in and used by ETEC and how they contribute to the ability of ETEC to colonize a host. Here, we collected a set of 94 fully assembled ETEC genomes by performing whole-genome sequencing and mining the NCBI RefSeq database. Using this set, we performed a comprehensive search for delivered bacterial toxins and investi-gated how these toxins contribute to ETEC competitiveness in vitro. We found that type VI secretion systems (T6SS) were widespread among ETEC (n = 47). In addition, several closely related ETEC strains were found to encode Colicin Ia and T6SS (n = 8). These toxins provide ETEC compe-titive advantages during in vitro competition against other E. coli, suggesting that the role of T6SS as well as colicins in ETEC biology has until now been underappreciated.
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| 5. |
- Lee, Danna, et al.
(författare)
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ETEC families possess diverse bacterial competition systems
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Diarrheal diseases still present a large problem for human kind, causing roughly half a million deaths annually. To cause infection, bacterial pathogens must first colonize the gut, a niche that is already occupied by the normal bacterial flora. The ability for a pathogenic strain to inhibit the growth of other bacteria can facilitate the colonization process. Although Enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) is one of the major causative agents of diarrheal disease, very little is known about the competition systems found in and used by ETEC. Here we perform a comprehensive search for bacteriocins, type 6 secretion and contact-dependent growth inhibition systems in all ETEC strains found in the NCBI database. We discover a set of closely related strains, isolated from different geographical regions over several decades, all contain colicin Ia. Using at least one representative strain from each of the 8 ETEC families commonly associated with childhood diarrhea, we demonstrate that colicin Ia is expressed in these strains, allowing them to inhibit the growth of laboratory strains as well as commensal normal flora E. coli in vitro. In addition, we identify T6SS in 50% of all ETEC isolates found in the NCBI database. We observe that he most prevalent T6SS is active in the presence of bile salts, suggesting a role of this system within the host. We discovered that T6SS are under strong positive selection and we find evidence of frequent horizontal gene transfer of the T6SS loci. In summary, we demonstrate that bacterial toxin delivery systems and the ability to compete with other bacteria is important for ETEC during some parts of its lifecycle.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Saghaug, Christina Skar, et al.
(författare)
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Human Memory CD4+ T Cell Immune Responses against Giardia lamblia
- 2016
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Ingår i: Clinical and Vaccine Immunology. - 1556-6811 .- 1556-679X. ; 23:1, s. 11-18
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The intestinal protozoan parasite Giardia lamblia may cause severe prolonged diarrheal disease or pass unnoticed as an asymptomatic infection. T cells seem to play an important role in the immune response to Giardia infection, and memory responses may last years. Recently, T(H)17 responses have been found in three animal studies of Giardia infection. The aim of this study was to characterize the human CD4+ T cell responses to Giardia. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were obtained from 21 returning travelers with recent or ongoing giardiasis and 12 low-risk healthy controls and stimulated in vitro with Giardia lamblia proteins. Production of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), gamma interferon, interleukin-17A (IL-17A), IL-10, and IL-4 was measured in CD4+ effector memory (EM) T cells after 24 h by flow cytometry. After 6 days of culture, activation and proliferation were measured by flow cytometry, while an array of inflammatory cytokine levels in supernatants were measured with multiplex assays. We found the number of IL-17A-producing CD4+ EM T cells, as well as that of cells simultaneously producing both IL-17A and TNF-alpha, to be significantly elevated in the Giardia-exposed individuals after 24 h of antigen stimulation. In supernatants of PBMCs stimulated with Giardia antigens for 6 days, we found inflammation-associated cytokines, including 1L-17A, as well as CD4+ T cell activation and proliferation, to be significantly elevated in the Giardia-exposed individuals. We conclude that symptomatic Giardia infection in humans induces a CD4+ EM T cell response of which IL-17A production seems to be an important component.
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| 8. |
- Stadelmann, Britta, et al.
(författare)
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The role of arginine and arginine-metabolizing enzymes during Giardia - host cell interactions in vitro
- 2013
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Ingår i: BMC Microbiology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1471-2180. ; 13, s. 256-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Arginine is a conditionally essential amino acid important in growing individuals and under non-homeostatic conditions/disease. Many pathogens interfere with arginine-utilization in host cells, especially nitric oxide (NO) production, by changing the expression of host enzymes involved in arginine metabolism. Here we used human intestinal epithelial cells (IEC) and three different isolates of the protozoan parasite Giardia intestinalis to investigate the role of arginine and arginine-metabolizing enzymes during intestinal protozoan infections. Results: RNA expression analyses of major arginine-metabolizing enzymes revealed the arginine-utilizing pathways in human IECs (differentiated Caco-2 cells) grown in vitro. Most genes were constant or down-regulated (e.g. arginase 1 and 2) upon interaction with Giardia, whereas inducible NO synthase (iNOS) and ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) were up-regulated within 6 h of infection. Giardia was shown to suppress cytokine-induced iNOS expression, thus the parasite has both iNOS inducing and suppressive activities. Giardial arginine consumption suppresses NO production and the NO-degrading parasite protein flavohemoglobin is up-regulated in response to host NO. In addition, the secreted, arginine-consuming giardial enzyme arginine deiminase (GiADI) actively reduces T-cell proliferation in vitro. Interestingly, the effects on NO production and T cell proliferation could be reversed by addition of external arginine or citrulline. Conclusions: Giardia affects the host's arginine metabolism on many different levels. Many of the effects can be reversed by addition of arginine or citrulline, which could be a beneficial supplement in oral rehydration therapy.
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