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Infection and Immunity, June 1999, p. 3009-3013, Vol. 67, No. 6
0019-9567/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

A Neisseria gonorrhoeae Immunoglobulin A1 Protease Mutant Is Infectious in the Human Challenge Model of Urethral Infection

Diana B. Johannsen,¹ David M. Johnston,^1, Hakan O. Koymen,¹ Myron S. Cohen,^1,2 and Janne G. Cannon^1,*

Departments of Microbiology and Immunology¹ and of Medicine,² University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599

Received 21 August 1998/Returned for modification 1 December 1998/Accepted 10 March 1999

Many mucosal pathogens, including Neisseria gonorrhoeae, produce proteases that cleave immunoglobulin A (IgA), the predominant immunoglobulin class produced at mucosal surfaces. While considerable circumstantial evidence suggests that IgA1 protease contributes to gonococcal virulence, there is no direct evidence that N. gonorrhoeae requires IgA1 protease activity to infect a human host. We constructed a N. gonorrhoeae iga mutant without introducing new antibiotic resistance markers into the final mutant strain and used human experimental infection to test the ability of the mutant to colonize the male urethra and to cause gonococcal urethritis. Four of the five male volunteers inoculated with the Iga mutant became infected. In every respectclinical signs and symptoms, incubation period between inoculation and infection, and the proportion of volunteers infectedthe outcome of human experimental infection with FA1090iga was indistinguishable from that previously reported for a variant of parent strain FA1090 matching the mutant in expression of Opa proteins, lipooligosaccharide, and pilin. These results indicate that N. gonorrhoeae does not require IgA1 protease production to cause experimental urethritis in males.

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^* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, CB#7290, 804 Mary Ellen Jones Building, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599. Phone: (919) 966-4774. Fax: (919) 962-8103. E-mail: jgc{at}med.unc.edu.

Present address: Laboratory Corp. of America, Center for Molecular Biology and Pathology, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709.

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Infection and Immunity, June 1999, p. 3009-3013, Vol. 67, No. 6
0019-9567/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

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