A Chlamydia trachomatis Strain Expressing Ovalbumin Stimulates an Antigen-Specific CD4 + T Cell Response in Mice

Antigen-specific CD4 T cells against are crucial for driving bacterial clearance and mediating protection against reinfection. Although the protein Cta1 has been identified to be a dominant murine CD4 T cell antigen, its level of expression during the bacterial developmental cycle and precise locali...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Infection and immunity 2019-07, Vol.87 (7)
Main Authors: Helble, Jennifer D, Starnbach, Michael N
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Antigens, Bacterial - immunology
CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes - immunology
Chlamydia Infections - immunology
Chlamydia Infections - microbiology
Chlamydia trachomatis - immunology
Disease Models, Animal
Female
Mice
Mice, Inbred C57BL
Microbial Immunity and Vaccines
Ovalbumin - metabolism
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Summary:Antigen-specific CD4 T cells against are crucial for driving bacterial clearance and mediating protection against reinfection. Although the protein Cta1 has been identified to be a dominant murine CD4 T cell antigen, its level of expression during the bacterial developmental cycle and precise localization within the host cell are unknown. Newly developed tools for genetic manipulation have allowed us to generate a strain expressing a heterologous CD4 T cell epitope from ovalbumin (OVA) consisting of OVA residues 323 to 339 (OVA ). By tagging proteins expressed in with OVA , we can begin to understand how protein expression, developmental regulation, and subcellular compartmentalization affect the potential of those proteins to serve as antigens. When OVA was expressed as a fusion with green fluorescent protein, we found that we were able to elicit an OT-II T cell response in an antigen-dependent manner, but surprisingly, these T cells were unable to reduce bacterial burden in mice. These data suggest that the subcellular localization of antigen, the level of antigen expression, or the timing of expression within the developmental cycle of may play a crucial role in eliciting a protective CD4 T cell response.
ISSN:0019-9567
1098-5522
DOI:10.1128/IAI.00837-18