Synthesis of Recombinant P48 of Mycoplasma agalactiae by Site Directed Mutagenesis and its Immunological Characterization.

Contagious agalactia caused by Mycoplasma agalactiae is an economically important disease of sheep and goats and has been prevalent worldwide including India. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the membrane protein P48 of M. agalactiae for specific diagnosis of disease. For this, p48 gene of the organism was amplified by PCR and subjected to site directed mutagenesis to convert three TGA codons to TGG's and, subsequently, cloned into prokaryotic expression vector pPRO EX HTb. Purified recombinant P48 protein reacted to anti-P48 serum in western blotting, which confirmed its immunogenic nature. Furthermore, the immune-blotting of the cell lysates from various Indian isolates of M. agalactiae against anti-P48 serum resulted in a single band at âˆ¼ 48 kDa among all isolates, indicating the conserved nature of P48 antigen in M. agalactiae. Also, the cross reactivity of P48 antigen among various Mycoplasma spp. was checked by western blotting which revealed reactivity only with M. agalactiae and M. bovis. Hence, this antigen could be exploited to differentiate M. agalactiae from other pathogenic Mycoplasma species except M. bovis. However, the inability of P48 to distinguish M. agalactiae from M. bovis does not downgrade the significance of P48 as the two species are usually host specific.

Immune response to dna vaccine expressing transferrin binding protein a gene of Pasteurella multocida

Haemorrhagic Septicaemia (HS), an acute and fatal disease of cattle and buffalo is primarily caused by serotype B:2 or E:2 of Pasteurella multocida. The transferrin binding protein A (TbpA) has been found to act as immunogen and potent vaccine candidate in various Gram negative bacteria including P. multocida. The present study was carried out to evaluate the potential of this antigen as a DNA vaccine against HS in mice model. The tbpA gene of P. multocida serotype B:2 was cloned in a mammalian expression vector alone and along with murine IL2 gene as immunological adjuvant to produce monocistronic and bicistronic DNA vaccine constructs, respectively. The immune response to DNA vaccines was evaluated based on serum antibody titres and lymphocyte proliferation assay. A significant increase in humoral and cell mediated immune responses was observed in mice vaccinated with DNA vaccines as compared to non immunized group. Additionally, the bicistronic DNA vaccine provided superior immune response and protection level following challenge as compared to monocistronic construct. The study revealed that DNA vaccine presents a promising approach for the prevention of HS.

Comparative analysis of cultural isolation and PCR based assay for detection of Campylobacter jejuni in food and faecal samples

In the present study, the efficacy of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based on mapA gene of C. jejuni was tested for detection of Campylobacter jejuni in naturally infected as well as spiked faecal and food samples of human and animal origin. Simultaneously, all the samples were subjected to the cultural isolation of organism and biochemical characterization. The positive samples resulted in the amplification of a DNA fragment of size ~589 bp in PCR assay whereas the absence of such amplicon in DNA extracted from E. coli, Listeria, Salmonella and Staphylococcus confirmed the specificity of the primers. Of randomly collected 143 faecal samples comprising human diarrheic stools (43), cattle diarrheic faeces (48) and poultry faecal swabs (52) only 4, 3 and 8, respectively, could be detected by isolation whereas 6, 3 and 10, respectively, were found positive by PCR. However, among food samples viz. beef (30), milk (35), cheese (30), only one beef sample was detected both by culture as well as PCR. Additionally, PCR was found to be more sensitive for C. jejuni detection in spiked faecal and food samples (96.1 percent each) as relative to culture isolation which could detect the organism in 86.7 percent and 80 percent samples, respectively. The results depicted the superior efficacy of PCR for rapid screening of samples owing to its high sensitivity, specificity and automation potential.

Comparative analysis of cultural isolation and PCR based assay for detection of campylobacter jejuni in food and faecal samples.

In the present study, the efficacy of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based on mapA gene of C. jejuni was tested for detection of Campylobacter jejuni in naturally infected as well as spiked faecal and food samples of human and animal origin. Simultaneously, all the samples were subjected to the cultural isolation of organism and biochemical characterization. The positive samples resulted in the amplification of a DNA fragment of size ~589 bp in PCR assay whereas the absence of such amplicon in DNA extracted from E. coli, Listeria, Salmonella and Staphylococcus confirmed the specificity of the primers. Of randomly collected 143 faecal samples comprising human diarrheic stools (43), cattle diarrheic faeces (48) and poultry faecal swabs (52) only 4, 3 and 8, respectively, could be detected by isolation whereas 6, 3 and 10, respectively, were found positive by PCR. However, among food samples viz. beef (30), milk (35), cheese (30), only one beef sample was detected both by culture as well as PCR. Additionally, PCR was found to be more sensitive for C. jejuni detection in spiked faecal and food samples (96.1% each) as relative to culture isolation which could detect the organism in 86.7% and 80% samples, respectively. The results depicted the superior efficacy of PCR for rapid screening of samples owing to its high sensitivity, specificity and automation potential.

Immune response to dna vaccine expressing transferrin binding protein a gene of Pasteurella multocida.

Haemorrhagic Septicaemia (HS), an acute and fatal disease of cattle and buffalo is primarily caused by serotype B:2 or E:2 of Pasteurella multocida. The transferrin binding protein A (TbpA) has been found to act as immunogen and potent vaccine candidate in various Gram negative bacteria including P. multocida. The present study was carried out to evaluate the potential of this antigen as a DNA vaccine against HS in mice model. The tbpA gene of P. multocida serotype B:2 was cloned in a mammalian expression vector alone and along with murine IL2 gene as immunological adjuvant to produce monocistronic and bicistronic DNA vaccine constructs, respectively. The immune response to DNA vaccines was evaluated based on serum antibody titres and lymphocyte proliferation assay. A significant increase in humoral and cell mediated immune responses was observed in mice vaccinated with DNA vaccines as compared to non immunized group. Additionally, the bicistronic DNA vaccine provided superior immune response and protection level following challenge as compared to monocistronic construct. The study revealed that DNA vaccine presents a promising approach for the prevention of HS.