• Vaccine Name: C. pneumoniae CopN protein vaccine
• Target Pathogen: Chlamydophila pneumoniae
• Target Disease: Pneumonia
• Vaccine Ontology ID: VO_0011432
• Type: Subunit vaccine
• Status: Research
• Antigen: C. pneumoniae copN
• copN gene engineering:
  • Type: Recombinant protein preparation
  • Description: C. pneumoniae CopN (gene lcrE; position 0324 of C. pneumoniae CWL029), was produced in a Bacillus subtilis protein expression system as a soluble protein. Recombinant CopN protein was dissolved in PBS at a concentration of 1 mg/ml and heated to 100 °C for 10 min after which the visible precipitation of protein was discernible. C. pneumoniae preparation was boiled for 10 min in a water bath at a concentration of 2.5 × 10^7 IFU/ml in SPG. E. coli heat-labile toxin, LT (kindly provided by Prof. G. Dougan, Imperial Collage, London, UK) was added to heat-aggregated protein suspension to a final concentration of 12.5 μg/ml (Tammiruusu et al., 2007).
  • Detailed Gene Information: Click Here.
• Adjuvant:
  • Adjuvant name:
  • VO adjuvant ID: VO_0001322
• Immunization Route: Intranasal

Mouse Response

• Host Strain: BALB/c
• Vaccination Protocol: Mice were immunized intranasally with 40 μg of heat-aggregated CopN/ 40 μl dose or 106 heat-treated C. pneumoniae inclusion forming unit (IFU) (approximately 1 μg of protein)/40 μl dose. Mice immunized intranasally with disrupted HL cells (Mock) or PBS were used as control. Fourteen days after the first immunization, the mice were boosted once with the same dose of antigen. All immunizations were performed under methoxyflurane anaesthesia (Metofane, Pitman-Moore, Mundelein, IL, USA) (Tammiruusu et al., 2007).
• Challenge Protocol: At 14 days after the second immunization, the mice were challenged intranasally with 10^5 IFU of C. pneumoniae in 40 μl of SPG under Metofane anaesthesia. At certain time points after infection, three to six mice were sacrificed, lungs were mechanically homogenized in SPG and dilutions of lung supernatant were cultured on HL cell monolayers (Tammiruusu et al., 2007).
• Efficacy: Intranasal immunization of BALB/c mice with heat-aggregated CopN protein and an Escherichia coli heat-labile toxin (LT) induced a strong immune response. The immunization induced statistically significant protection against intranasal C. pneumoniae challenge, the level of which correlated with the magnitude of CopN-specific lymphocyte proliferation (Tammiruusu et al., 2007).
• Host Ifng (Interferon gamma) response
  • Description: The results of this study showed that intranasal immunization of BALB/c mice with heat-aggregated CopN protein and an Escherichia coli heat-labile toxin (LT) induced a strong immune response, detected as IFN-gamma production. The response was significant as compared to PBS-vaccinated mice in the lungs, spleen, and mediastinal lymph nodes 14 days after challenge (Tammiruusu et al., 2007).
  • Detailed Gene Information: Click Here.