IAI FigSearch
Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Mooi, F. R.
Right arrow Articles by Willems, R. J. L.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Mooi, F. R.
Right arrow Articles by Willems, R. J. L.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Infect Immun, February 1998, p. 670-675, Vol. 66, No. 2
0019-9567/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Polymorphism in the Bordetella pertussis Virulence Factors P.69/Pertactin and Pertussis Toxin in The Netherlands: Temporal Trends and Evidence for Vaccine-Driven Evolution

Frits R. Mooi,1,* Hans van Oirschot,1 Kees Heuvelman,1 Han G. J. van der Heide,1 Wim Gaastra,2 and Rob J. L. Willems1

Research Laboratory for Infectious Diseases, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, 3720 BA Bilthoven,1 and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Institute of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, University of Utrecht, 3508 TD Utrecht,2 The Netherlands

Received 2 October 1997/Returned for modification 30 October 1997/Accepted 20 November 1997

The Bordetella pertussis proteins P.69 (also designated pertactin) and pertussis toxin are important virulence factors and have been shown to confer protective immunity in animals and humans. Both proteins are used in the new generation of acellular pertussis vaccines (ACVs), and it is therefore important to study the degree of antigenic variation in these proteins. Sequence analysis of the genes for P.69 and the pertussis toxin S1 subunit, using strains collected from Dutch patients in the period 1949 to 1996, revealed three P.69 and three S1 variants which show differences in amino acid sequence. Polymorphism in P.69 was confined to a region comprised of repeats and located proximal to the RGD motif involved in adherence to host tissues. Variation in S1 was observed in two regions previously identified as T-cell epitopes. P.69 and S1 variants, identical to those included in the Dutch whole-cell pertussis vaccine (WCV), were found in 100% of the strains from the 1950s, the period when the WCV was introduced in The Netherlands. However, nonvaccine types of P.69 and S1 gradually replaced the vaccine types in later years and were found in ~90% strains from 1990 to 1996. These results suggest that vaccination has selected for strains which are antigenically distinct from vaccine strains. Analysis of strains from vaccinated and nonvaccinated individuals indicated that the WCV protects better against strains with the vaccine type P.69 than against strains with non-vaccine types (P = 0.024). ACVs contain P.69 and S1 types which are found in only 10% of recent Dutch B. pertussis isolates, implying that they do not have an optimal composition. Our findings cast a new light on the reemergence of pertussis in highly vaccinated populations and may have major implications for the long-term efficacy of both WCVs and ACVs.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Research Laboratory for Infectious Diseases, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, P.O. Box 1, 3720 BA Bilthoven, The Netherlands. Phone: 31-30-274.3091. Fax: 31-30-274.4449. E-mail: fr.mooi{at}rivm.nl.




This article has been cited by other articles:



Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
J. Bacteriol. J. Virol. Eukaryot. Cell
Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. Clin. Vaccine Immunol. All ASM Journals

Copyright © 1998 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.