Researchers evaluated the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of GroEL of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi against lethal infection by S. typhi Ty2 in mice with or without adjuvants. Immunization of mice with GroEL-alone, GroEL + alum, and GroEL + CFA provided 70, 50 and 80% protection, respectively, against lethal challenge by S. typhi in mice. The present study shows that GroEL forms an ideal candidate molecule to develop a recombinant protein based vaccine against human typhoid (Bansal et al., 2010).
Bansal et al., 2010: Bansal A, Paliwal PK, Sagi SS, Sairam M. Effect of adjuvants on immune response and protective immunity elicited by recombinant Hsp60 (GroEL) of Salmonella typhi against S. typhi infection. Molecular and cellular biochemistry. 2010; 337(1-2); 213-221. [PubMed: 19851830].
60 kDa chaperone family; promotes refolding of misfolded polypeptides especially under stressful conditions; forms two stacked rings of heptamers to form a barrel-shaped 14mer; ends can be capped by GroES; misfolded proteins enter the barrel where they are refolded when GroES binds; many bacteria have multiple copies of the groEL gene which are active under different environmental conditions; the B.japonicum protein in this cluster is expressed constitutively; in Rhodobacter, Corynebacterium and Rhizobium this protein is essential for growth
