Chronic Infection by Mucoid Pseudomonas aeruginosa Associated with Dysregulation in T-Cell Immunity to Outer Membrane Porin F

RATIONALE

Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) is an environmental pathogen that commonly infects individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF) and non-CF bronchiectasis, impacting morbidity and mortality. To understand the pathobiology of interactions between the bacterium and host adaptive immunity and to inform rational vaccine design, it is important to understand the adaptive immune correlates of disease.

OBJECTIVES

To characterize T-cell immunity to the PA antigen outer membrane porin F (OprF) by analyzing immunodominant epitopes in relation to infection status.

METHODS

Patients with non-CF bronchiectasis were stratified by frequency of PA isolation. T-cell IFN-γ immunity to OprF and its immunodominant epitopes was characterized. Patterns of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) restriction of immunodominant epitopes were defined using HLA class II transgenic mice. Immunity was characterized with respect to cytokine and chemokine secretion, antibody response, and T-cell activation transcripts.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

Patients were stratified according to whether PA was never, sometimes (<50%), or frequently (≥50%) isolated from sputum. Patients with frequent PA sputum-positive isolates were more likely to be infected by mucoid PA, and they showed a narrow T-cell epitope response and a relative reduction in Th1 polarizing transcription factors but enhanced immunity with respect to antibody production, innate cytokines, and chemokines.

CONCLUSIONS

We have defined the immunodominant, HLA-restricted T-cell epitopes of OprF. Our observation that chronic infection is associated with a response of narrowed specificity, despite strong innate and antibody immunity, may help to explain susceptibility in these individuals and pave the way for better vaccine design to achieve protective immunity.

The serodominant secreted effector protein of Salmonella, SseB, is a strong CD4 antigen containing an immunodominant epitope presented by diverse HLA class II alleles

Detailed characterization of the protective T-cell response in salmonellosis is a pressing unmet need in light of the global burden of human Salmonella infections and the likely contribution of CD4 T cells to immunity against this intracellular infection. In previous studies screening patient sera against antigen arrays, SseB was noteworthy as a serodominant target of adaptive immunity, inducing significantly raised antibody responses in HIV-seronegative compared with seropositive patients. SseB is a secreted protein, part of the Espa superfamily, localized to the bacterial surface and forming part of the translocon of the type III secretion system (T3SS) encoded by Salmonella pathogenicity island 2. We demonstrate here that SseB is also a target of CD4 T-cell immunity, generating a substantial response after experimental infection in human volunteers, with around 0·1% of the peripheral repertoire responding to it. HLA-DR/peptide binding studies indicate that this protein encompasses a number of peptides with ability to bind to several different HLA-DR alleles. Of these, peptide 11 (p11) was shown in priming of both HLA-DR1 and HLA-DR4 transgenic mice to contain an immunodominant CD4 epitope. Analysis of responses in human donors showed immunity focused on p11 and another epitope in peptide 2. The high frequency of SseB-reactive CD4 T cells and the broad applicability to diverse HLA genotypes coupled with previous observations of serodominance and protective vaccination in mouse challenge experiments, make SseB a plausible candidate for next-generation Salmonella vaccines.