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Infection and Immunity, June 2007, p. 3027-3032, Vol. 75, No. 6
0019-9567/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/IAI.00150-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

The Type IV Pilin of Burkholderia mallei Is Highly Immunogenic but Fails To Protect against Lethal Aerosol Challenge in a Murine Model

Paula J. Fernandes,^1, Qin Guo,¹ David M. Waag,² and Michael S. Donnenberg^1*

Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 20 Penn Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21201,¹ Bacteriology Division, U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, Maryland 21702-5011²

Received 29 January 2007/ Returned for modification 23 February 2007/ Accepted 21 March 2007

Burkholderia mallei is the cause of glanders and a proven biological weapon. We identified and purified the type IV pilin protein of this organism to study its potential as a subunit vaccine. We found that purified pilin was highly immunogenic. Furthermore, mice infected via sublethal aerosol challenge developed significant increases in titers of antibody against the pilin, suggesting that it is expressed in vivo. Nevertheless, we found no evidence that high-titer antipilin antisera provided passive protection against a sublethal or lethal aerosol challenge and no evidence of protection afforded by active immunization with purified pilin. These results contrast with the utility of type IV pilin subunit vaccines against other infectious diseases and highlight the need for further efforts to identify protective responses against this pathogen.

Published ahead of print on 2 April 2007.

Editor: D. L. Burns

Present address: Association of Public Health Laboratories, Silver Spring, MD 20910.