Listeria-vectored cervical cancer vaccine candidate strains reduce MDSCs via the JAK-STAT signaling pathway.

BACKGROUND: Immunosuppressive status is prevalent in cancer patients and increases the complexity of tumor immunotherapy. It has been found that Listeria-vectored tumor vaccines had the potential ability of two-side regulatory effect on the immune response during immunotherapy. RESULTS: The results show that the combined immunotherapy with the LM∆E6E7 and LI∆E6E7, the two cervical cancer vaccine candidate strains constructed by our lab, improves the antitumor immune response and inhibits the suppressive immune response in tumor-bearing mice in vivo, confirming the two-sided regulatory ability of the immune response caused by Listeria-vectored tumor vaccines. The immunotherapy reduces the expression level of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs)-inducing factors and then inhibits the phosphorylation level of STAT3 protein, the regulatory factor of MDSCs differentiation, to reduce the MDSCs formation ability. Moreover, vaccines reduce the expression of functional molecules associated with MDSCs may by inhibiting the phosphorylation level of the JAK1-STAT1 and JAK2-STAT3 pathways in tumor tissues to attenuate the immunosuppressive function of MDSCs. CONCLUSIONS: Immunotherapy with Listeria-vectored cervical cancer vaccines significantly reduces the level and function of MDSCs in vivo, which is the key point to the destruction of immunosuppression. The study for the first to elucidate the mechanism of breaking the immunosuppression.

Preimmunization with Listeria-vectored cervical cancer vaccine candidate strains can establish specific T-cell immune memory and prevent tumorigenesis.

BACKGROUND: Although HPV prophylactic vaccines can provide effective immune protection against high-risk HPV infection, studies have shown that the protective effect provided by them would decrease with the increased age of vaccination, and they are not recommended for those who are not in the appropriate age range for vaccination. Therefore, in those people who are not suitable for HPV prophylactic vaccines, it is worth considering establishing memory T-cell immunity to provide long-term immune surveillance and generate a rapid response against lesional cells to prevent tumorigenesis. METHODS: In this study, healthy mice were preimmunized with LM∆E6E7 and LI∆E6E7, the two Listeria-vectored cervical cancer vaccine candidate strains constructed previously by our laboratory, and then inoculated with tumor cells 40 d later. RESULTS: The results showed that preimmunization with LM∆E6E7 and LI∆E6E7 could establish protective memory T-cell immunity against tumor antigens in mice, which effectively eliminate tumor cells. 60% of mice preimmunized with vaccines did not develop tumors, and for the remaining mice, tumor growth was significantly inhibited. We found that preimmunization with vaccines may exert antitumor effects by promoting the enrichment of T cells at tumor site to exert specific immune responses, as well as inhibiting intratumoral angiogenesis and cell proliferation. CONCLUSION: Altogether, this study suggests that preimmunization with LM∆E6E7 and LI∆E6E7 can establish memory T-cell immunity against tumor antigens in vivo, which provides a viable plan for preventing tumorigenesis and inhibiting tumor progression.

Membrane vesicles derived from Listeria monocytogenes might be a potential antigen delivery vector.

Membrane vesicles (MVs) derived from Listeria monocytogenes (LM) have a natural nanoscale size and contain a variety of bacterial components. We speculated that LM MVs may be a novel delivery vector, but it is necessary to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of LM MVs in vivo. Here, we isolated LM MVs and tested their safety and immunogenicity both in vitro and in vivo. The results showed that LM MVs stimulated RAW264.7 cells and DC2.4 cells to secrete the inflammatory cytokines IL-1ß, TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-10. Intraperitoneal injection of LM MVs at 80 µg per C57BL/6 mouse did not cause lethal effects or irreversible pathological changes in major organs, indicating that LM MVs were safe. Intraperitoneal immunization of C57BL/6 mice twice with LM MVs mainly induced a high level of LM MV-specific IgG antibodies. In addition, we subcutaneously injected C57BL/6 mice with a mixture of ovalbumin and LM MVs and found that LM MVs exhibited a humoral immune adjuvant effect equal to that of the same amount of alum. The results of this study indicated that LM MVs have good safety and effective immunogenicity and may act as humoral immune adjuvants. Therefore, LM MVs are a potential new choice for antigen and drug delivery vectors.

Hemolysin function of Listeria is related to biofilm formation: transcriptomics analysis.

Listeriolysin O (LLO) is the main virulence protein of Listeria monocytogenes (LM), that helps LM escape lysosomes. We previously found that the cellular immune response elicited by L.ivanovii (LI) is weaker than that elicited by LM. We speculated that this may be related to the function of ivanolysin O (ILO). Here, we constructed hemolysin gene deletion strain, LIΔilo, and a modified strain, LIΔilo::hly, in which ilo was replaced by hly. Prokaryotic transcriptome sequencing was performed on LI, LIΔilo, and LIΔilo::hly. Transcriptome differences between the three strains were compared, and genes and pathways with significant differences between the three strains were analyzed. Prokaryotic transcriptome sequencing results revealed the relationship of ilo to the ribosome, quorum sensing, and phosphotransferase system (PTS) pathways, etc. LIΔilo exhibited attenuated biofilm formation ability compared to LI. Biofilm formation was significantly recovered or even increased after replenishing hly. After knocking out ilo, the relative expression levels of some virulence genes, including sigB, prfA, actA, smcL, and virR, were up-regulated compared to LI. After replenishing hly, these genes were down-regulated compared to LIΔilo. The trend and degree of such variation were not completely consistent when cultured in media containing only monosaccharides or disaccharides. The results confirmed that hemolysin is related to some important biological properties of Listeria, including biofilm formation and virulence gene expression levels. This is the first comprehensive study on ILO function at the transcriptomic level and the first evidence of a relationship between Listeria hemolysin and biofilm formation.

Combined transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis of Salmonella in the presence or absence of PhoP-PhoQ system under low Mg2+ conditions.

INTRODUCTION: Previous reports revealed the role played by Salmonella PhoP-PhoQ system in virulence activation, antimicrobial tolerance and intracellular survival, the impact of PhoP-PhoQ on cell metabolism has been less extensively described. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to address whether and how the PhoP-PhoQ system affects the cell metabolism of Salmonella. METHODS: We constructed a Salmonella phoP deletion mutant strain TT-81 (PhoP-OFF), a Salmonella PhoP constitutively expressed strain TT-82 (PhoP-ON) and a wild-type Salmonella PhoP strain TT-80 (PhoP-N), using P22-mediated generalized transduction or λ Red-mediated targeted mutagenesis. We then measured the in vitro growth kinetics of all test strains and determined their metabolomic and transcriptomic profiles using gas chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) and RNA-seq technique, respectively. RESULTS: Low-Mg2+ conditions impaired the growth of the phoP deletion mutant strain TT-81 (PhoP-OFF) dramatically. 42 metabolites in the wild-type PhoP strain TT-80 (PhoP-N) and 28 metabolites in the PhoP constitutively expressed strain TT-82 (PhoP-ON) changed by the absence of phoP. In contrast, the level of 19 compounds in TT-80 (PhoP-N) changed comparing to the PhoP constitutively expressed strain TT-82 (PhoP-N). The mRNA level of 95 genes in TT-80 (PhoP-N) changed when phoP was disrupted, wherein 78 genes downregulated and 17 genes upregulated. 106 genes were determined to be differentially expressed between TT-81 (PhoP-OFF) and TT-82 (PhoP-ON). While only 16 genes were found to differentially expressed between TT-82 (PhoP-ON) and TT-80 (PhoP-N). CONCLUSION: Our findings confirmed the impact of PhoP-PhoQ system on lipopolysaccharide (LPS) modification, energy metabolism, and the biosynthesis or transport of amino acids. Most importantly, we demonstrated that the turnover of a given metabolite could respond differentially to the level of phoP. Taken together, the present study provided new insights into the adaptation of Salmonella to the host environment and helped to characterize the impact of the PhoP-PhoQ system on the cell metabolism.

A Listeria ivanovii balanced-lethal system may be a promising antigen carrier for vaccine construction.

Expressing heterologous antigens by plasmids may cause antibiotic resistance. Additionally, antigen expression via plasmids is unstable due to the loss of the plasmid. Here, we developed a balanced-lethal system. The Listeria monocytogenes (LM) balanced-lethal system has been previously used as an antigen carrier to induce cellular immune response. However, thus far, there has been no reports on Listeria ivanovii (LI) balanced-lethal systems. The dal and dat genes from the LI-attenuated LIΔatcAplcB (LIΔ) were deleted consecutively, resulting in a nutrient-deficient LIΔdd strain. Subsequently, an antibiotic resistance-free plasmid carrying the LM dal gene was transformed into the nutrient-deficient strain to generate the LI balanced-lethal system LIΔdd:dal. The resultant bacterial strain retains the ability to proliferate in phagocytic cells, as well as the ability to adhere and invade hepatocytes. Its genetic composition was stable, and compared to the parent strain, the balanced-lethal system was substantially attenuated. In addition, LIΔdd:dal induced specific CD4+ /CD8+ T-cell responses and protected mice against LIΔ challenge. Similarly, we constructed an LM balanced-lethal system LMΔdd:dal. Sequential immunization with different recombinant Listeria strains will significantly enhance the immunotherapeutic effect. Thus, LIΔdd:dal combined with LMΔdd:dal, or with other balanced-lethal systems will be more promising alternative for vaccine development.

Recombinant Listeria ivanovii strain expressing listeriolysin O in place of ivanolysin O might be a potential antigen carrier for vaccine construction.

Listeria monocytogenes (LM) induces efficient and specific T-cell immune responses in the host. Listeriolysin O (LLO) is the main virulence protein of LM. LLO helps LM escape from the lysosome. However, the pronounced pathogenicity of LM limits its practical application as a live bacterial vector. Listeria ivanovii (LI) also displays intracellular parasitic abilities, cell to cell transfer, and other LM properties, with an elevated biosafety relative to LM. We have confirmed that LI can be used as a viable bacterial vaccine vector. However, we have also observed in vivo that LI vector vaccine candidates survive in the immune organ (spleen) for a shorter time compared with the survival time of LM and elicit weaker immune responses compared with LM. Studies have confirmed that hemolysin correlates with some important biological properties of Listeria, including cell invasion, intracellular proliferation, and the ability to induce immune responses. We speculated that the weaker immunogenicity of LI compared to LM may be related to the function of ivanolysin O (ILO). Here, we established a hemolysin gene deletion strain, LIΔilo, and a modified strain, LIΔilo:hly, whose ilo was replaced by hly. The hemolysin-modified strain was attenuated; however, it led to significantly improved invasive and proliferative activities of antigen-presenting cells, including those of RAW 264.7 macrophages, compared with the effects of LI. Mice immunized twice with LIΔilo:hly showed higher cytokine levels and better challenge protection rates than LI-immunized mice. This is the first description in Listeria carrier vaccine research of the modification of LI hemolysin to obtain a better vaccine carrier than LI. The recombinant strain LIΔilo:hly showed good biosafety and immunogenicity, and thus appears to be a good vector strain for vaccine development.

[Extraction, Characterization and Immune Effect Analysis of Listeria Monocytogenes Membrane Vesicles].

OBJECTIVE: To establish a method for extracting Listeria monocytogenesmembrane vesicles (LM-MVs) and to analyze the characteristics of LM-MVs and their ability to induce innate immune effect in vitro so as to lay the foundation for research into using LM-MVs as vaccine carrier and drug delivery platform. METHODS: The membrane vesicles secreted by Listeria monocytogenes were extracted through a continuous process, including culturing, centrifugation, filtration, ultrafiltration concentration and ultracentrifugation. The morphological characteristics of LM-MVs were observed with transmission electron microscope, and particle size distribution were measured by dynamic light scattering analysis. SDS-PAGE and Western blot were used to analyze the protein composition of LM-MVs. CCK-8 cell proliferation and toxicity determination experiments were done to analyze their effect on the proliferation of innate immune cells, and qPCR was used to analyze their ability to induce innate immune responses. RESULTS: A method for extracting LM-MVs was successfully established. Under the transmission electron microscope, LM-MVs presented a nearly circular film-like structure, and dynamic light scattering analysis showed that their sizes were between 65 and 190 nm. SDS-PAGE and Western blot showed that LM-MVs contained proteins, including listeriolysin O (LLO). CCK-8 cell proliferation and toxicity experiment showed that after intervention with 10, 20 and 50 µg/mL of LM-MVs for 24 hours, the proliferation rate of DC 2.4 mouse dendritic cell line was higher than that of non-interventional DC 2.4 cells ( P<0.05); after intervention with 0.1, 1, 10, 20 and 50 µg/mL of LM-MVs for 24 hours, the proliferation rate of RAW 264.7 cells was higher than that of non-interventional RAW 264.7 cells ( P<0.01). The results of qPCR showed that, after intervention with 50 µg/mL of LM-MVs, the expression levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1ß, IL-6 and IL-10 in RAW 264.7 cells were higher than those of non-intervention control cells ( P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The method established in the study can be used to extract LM-MVs. The extracted LM-MVs have a diameter of 65-190 nm and a nearly circular membrane-like structure. They can secrete a variety of protein components and stimulate innate immune responses.

A newly identified linear epitope on non-RBD region of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein improves the serological detection rate of COVID-19 patients.

BACKGROUND: Serological test is helpful in confirming and tracking infectious diseases in large population with the advantage of fast and convenience. Using the specific epitope peptides identified from the whole antigen as the detection antigen is sensitive and relatively economical. The development of epitope peptide-based detection kits for COVID-19 patients requires comprehensive information about epitope peptides. But the data on B cell epitope of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is still limited. More importantly, there is a lack of serological data on the peptides in the population. In this study, we aimed to identify the B cell epitope peptides of spike protein and detect the reactivity in serum samples, for further providing data support for their subsequent serological applications. RESULTS: Two B cell linear epitopes, P104 and P82, located in non-RBD region of SARS-CoV-2 S protein were identified by indirect ELISA screening of an overlapping peptide library of the S protein with COVID-19 patients' convalescent serum. And the peptides were verified by testing with 165 serum samples. P104 has not been reported previously; P82 is contained in peptide S21P2 reported before. The positive reaction rates of epitope peptides S14P5 and S21P2, the two non-RBD region epitopes identified by Poh et al., and P82 and P104 were 77.0%, 73.9%, 61.2% and 30.3%, respectively, for 165 convalescent sera, including 30 asymptomatic patients. Although P104 had the lowest positive rate for total patients (30.3%), it exhibited slight advantage for detection of asymptomatic infections (36.7%). Combination of epitopes significantly improved the positive reaction rate. Among all combination patterns, (S14P5 + S21P2 + P104) pattern exhibited the highest positive reaction rate for all patients (92.7%), as well as for asymptomatic infections (86.7%), confirming the feasibility of P104 as supplementary antigen for serological detection. In addition, we analyzed the correlation between epitopes with neutralizing antibody, but only S14P5 had a medium positive correlation with neutralizing antibody titre (rs = 0.510, P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Our research proved that epitopes on non-RBD region are of value in serological detection especially when combination more than one epitope, thus providing serological reaction information about the four epitopes, which has valuable references for their usage.

The Impact of SlyA on Cell Metabolism of Salmonella typhimurium: A Joint Study of Transcriptomics and Metabolomics.

SlyA is an important transcriptional regulator in Salmonella typhimurium (S. typhimurium). Numerous reports have indicated the impact of SlyA on the virulence of S. typhimurium. Less information regarding the role of SlyA in the cell metabolism of S. typhimurium is available. To close this gap, we compared the growth kinetics of an S. typhimurium wild-type strain to a slyA deletion mutant strain. The data suggested that the cell growth of S. typhimurium was impaired when slyA abolished, indicating that SlyA might affect the cell metabolism of S. typhimurium. To determine the role of SlyA in cell metabolism, we analyzed the metabolite profiles of S. typhimurium in the presence or absence of slyA using gas chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS-MS). With the aim of appropriately interpreting the results obtained from metabolomics, a transcriptomic analysis on both the wild-type S. typhimurium and the slyA deletion mutant was performed. The metabolome data indicated that several glycolysis and lipid metabolism-associated pathways, including the turnover of glycerolipid, pyruvate, butanoate, and glycerophospholipid, were affected in the absence of slyA. In addition, the mRNA levels of several genes associated with glycolysis and lipid turnover were downregulated when slyA was deleted, including pagP, fadL, mgtB, iacp, and yciA. Collectively, these evidence suggested that SlyA affects the glycolysis and lipid turnover of S. typhimurium at a transcriptional level. The raw data of metabolomics is available in the MetaboLights database with an access number of MTBLS1858. The raw data of transcriptome is available in the Sequence Read Archive (SRA) database with an access number of PRJNA656165.

Heterologous Boosting With Listeria-Based Recombinant Strains in BCG-Primed Mice Improved Protection Against Pulmonary Mycobacterial Infection.

While Baccillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) is used worldwide, tuberculosis (TB) is still a global concern due to the poor efficacy of BCG. Novel vaccine candidates are therefore urgently required. In this study, two attenuated recombinant Listeria strains, LMΔ-msv and LIΔ-msv were constructed by deletion of actA and plcB and expression of a fusion protein consisting of T cell epitopes from four Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) antigens (Rv2460c, Rv2660c, Rv3875, and Rv3804c). The safety and immunogenicity of the two recombinant strains were evaluated in C57BL/6J mice. After intravenous immunization individually, both recombinant strains entered liver and spleen but eventually were eliminated from these organs after several days. Simultaneously, they induced antigen-specific cell-mediated immunity, indicating that the recombinant Listeria strains were immunogenic and safe in vivo. LMΔ-msv immunization induced stronger cellular immune responses than LIΔ-msv immunization, and when boosted with LIΔ-msv, antigen-specific IFN-γ CD8+ T cell responses were notably magnified. Furthermore, we evaluated the protection conferred by the vaccine candidates against mycobacterial infection via challenging the mice with 1 × 107 CFU of BCG. Especially, we tested the feasibility of application of them as heterologous BCG supplement vaccine by immunization of mice with BCG firstly, and boosted with LMΔ-msv and LIΔ-msv sequentially before challenging. Combination immune strategy (LMΔ-msv prime-LIΔ-msv boost) conferred comparable protection efficacy as BCG alone. More importantly, BCG-vaccinated mice acquired stronger resistance to Mycobacterial challenge when boosted with LMΔ-msv and LIΔ-msv sequentially. Our results inferred that heterologous immunization with Listeria-based recombinant strains boosted BCG-primed protection against pulmonary mycobacterial infection.

Comparison of Five Extraction Methods for Intracellular Metabolites of Salmonella typhimurium.

Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium (S. typhimurium) causes food poisoning in human and animals. Its infection rate is the highest among all salmonella serotypes. Metabolomics is a potential way to study the pathogenesis of S. typhimurium via analysis of various small molecular substances. Due to the lack of a uniform protocol for the extraction of metabolites, we evaluated five commonly used extraction methods including cold methanol (CM), hot ethanol (HE), chloroform-methanol cocktail (CMC), perchloric acid (PCA), and alkali (AL) for their efficacy in extracting the intracellular metabolites of S. typhimurium. Samples were quenched in 60% methanol at - 40 °C, and then the five methods were used to extract the metabolites. After derivatization, all samples were analyzed on a gas chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). Our results suggest that CM and HE extraction methods provide the best compromise allowing identification of 98 and 95 metabolites in a single analysis. For targeted metabolome analysis, the optimal extraction method for alcohols and organic acids is HE. CMC preferentially extracted lipid metabolites. PCA is suitable for extraction of small molecular carbohydrates. The optimal extraction method for macromolecular carbohydrates is the CM method.