Fine-mapping of immunodominant linear B-cell epitopes of the Staphylococcus aureus SEB antigen using short overlapping peptides

PLoS One. 2014 Mar 5;9(3):e90445. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0090445. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) is one of the most potent Staphylococcus aureus exotoxins (SEs). Due to its conserved sequence and stable structure, SEB might be a good candidate antigen for MRSA vaccines. Although cellular immune responses to SEB are well-characterized, much less is known regarding SEB-specific humoral immune responses, particularly regarding detailed epitope mapping. In this study, we utilized a recombinant nontoxic mutant of SEB (rSEB) and an AlPO4 adjuvant to immunize BALB/c mice and confirmed that rSEB can induce a high antibody level and effective immune protection against MRSA infection. Next, the antisera of immunized mice were collected, and linear B cell epitopes within SEB were finely mapped using a series of overlapping synthetic peptides. Three immunodominant B cell epitopes of SEB were screened by ELISA, including a novel epitope, SEB205-222, and two known epitopes, SEB97-114 and SEB247-261. Using truncated peptides, an ELISA was performed with peptide-KLH antisera, and the core sequence of the three immunodominant B cell epitopes were verified as SEB97-112, SEB207-222, and SEB247-257. In vitro, all of the immunodominant epitope-specific antisera (anti-SEB97-112, anti-SEB207-222 and anti-SEB247-257) were observed to inhibit SEB-induced T cell mitogenesis and cytokine production from splenic lymphocytes of BALB/c mice. The homology analysis indicated that SEB97-112 and SEB207-222 were well-conserved among different Staphylococcus aureus strains. The 3D crystal structure of SEB indicated that SEB97-112 was in the loop region inside SEB, whereas SEB207-222 and SEB247-257 were in the β-slice region outside SEB. In summary, the fine-mapping of linear B-cell epitopes of the SEB antigen in this study will be useful to understand anti-SEB immunity against MRSA infection further and will be helpful to optimize MRSA vaccine designs that are based on the SEB antigen.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Animals
  • Bacterial Vaccines / chemistry
  • Bacterial Vaccines / immunology
  • Cell Proliferation
  • Cytokines / metabolism
  • Enterotoxins / chemistry
  • Enterotoxins / immunology*
  • Epitope Mapping
  • Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte / chemistry
  • Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte / immunology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Immunodominant Epitopes / chemistry
  • Immunodominant Epitopes / immunology*
  • Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus / immunology*
  • Mice, Inbred BALB C
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Peptide Fragments / chemistry
  • Peptide Fragments / immunology
  • Staphylococcal Infections / immunology
  • Staphylococcal Infections / prevention & control*
  • T-Lymphocytes / physiology
  • Vaccination

Substances

  • Bacterial Vaccines
  • Cytokines
  • Enterotoxins
  • Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte
  • Immunodominant Epitopes
  • Peptide Fragments
  • enterotoxin B, staphylococcal

Grants and funding

This work was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31300759), and the national Twelfth Five Year Plan “863” major projects of China (No. 2012AA02A405-3). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.