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Safe staphylococcal platform for the development of multivalent nanoscale vesicles against viral infections yuan jizhen, Jie Yang, Zhen Hu, Yi Yang, Weilong Shang, Qiwen Hu, Ying Zheng, Huagang Peng, Xiaopeng Zhang, Xinyu Cai, Junmin Zhu, Ming Li, Xiaomei Hu, Renjie Zhou, and Xiancai Rao Nano Lett., Just Accepted Manuscript • DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b03893 • Publication Date (Web): 18 Dec 2017 Downloaded from http://pubs.acs.org on December 18, 2017
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Safe staphylococcal platform for the development of multivalent nanoscale
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vesicles against viral infections
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Jizhen Yuan#, Jie Yang#, Zhen Hu#, Yi Yang#, Weilong Shang#, Qiwen Hu#, Ying
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Zheng#, Huagang Peng#, Xiaopeng Zhang#, Xinyu Cai⊥, Junmin Zhu#, Ming Li#,
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Xiaomei Hu#, Renjie Zhou⊥,*, Xiancai Rao#,*
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#
Department of Microbiology, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Third Military
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Medical University, 30# Gaotanyan St., Shapingba District, Chongqing 400038, P. R.
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China.
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⊥
Department of Emergency, Xinqiao Hospital, Third Military Medical University, 83# Xinqiao St., Shapingba District, Chongqing 400037, P. R. China.
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Running title: Platform for the development of nanoscale vesicles
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ABSTRACT
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Many viruses often have closely related yet antigenically distinct serotypes. An ideal
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vaccine against viral infections should induce a multivalent and protective immune
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response against all serotypes. Inspired by bacterial membrane vesicles (MVs) that
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carry different protein components, we constructed an agr locus deletion mutant of
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the Staphylococcus aureus strain (RN4220-∆agr) to reduce potential toxicity.
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Nanoscale vesicles derived from this strain (∆agrMVs) carry at least four major
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components that can deliver heterologous antigens. These components were each
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fused with a triple FLAG tag, and the tagged proteins could be incorporated into the
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∆agr
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and (2.89 ± 0.74)% of the total
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PdhA-FLAG, and Eno-FLAG, respectively. With two DENV envelope E domain III
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proteins (EDIIIconA and EDIIIconB) as models, the DENV EDIIIconA and
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EDIIIconB delivered by two staphylococcal components were stably embedded in the
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∆agr
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against all four DENV serotypes. Sera from immunized mice protected Vero cells and
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suckling mice from a lethal challenge of DENV-2. This study will open up new
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insights into the preparation of multivalent nano-sized viral vaccines against viral
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infections.
MVs. The presentation levels were (3.43 ± 0.73)%, (5.07 ± 0.82)%, (2.64 ± 0.61)%, ∆agr
MV proteins for Mntc-FLAG, PdhB-FLAG,
MVs. Administration of such engineered
∆agr
MVs in mice induced antibodies
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KEYWORDS: Staphylococcus aureus; membrane vesicle; agr; vaccine; dengue virus
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Vaccination is the most effective strategy for preventing viral diseases. However,
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many viruses often have closely related yet antigenically distinct serotypes or
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genotypes, such as poliovirus,1 herpes simplex virus,2 human papillomavirus,3 and
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dengue virus (DENV).4 Developing vaccines for diseases caused by such
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polyserotypic viruses is challenging.5 In general, the viral vaccine for each serotype or
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genotype is prepared and subsequently administrated separately or in a combined
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formulation. The development of a versatile platform for the generation of multivalent
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viral vaccines is high priority.
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Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) secreted by Gram-negative bacteria have been
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studied for nearly five decades and have since emerged as attractive and effective
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vaccines or delivery systems.6–9 Nano-sized OMVs can be gradually released from the
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outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria cell walls. OMVs are also secreted from
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pathogens, such as Burkholderia pseudomallei,7 Shigella boydii,8 Salmonella enterica
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serovar Typhimurium,9 and Neisseria meningitides.10 These OMVs induce potent
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protective immune responses against certain pathogens. Moreover, OMVs from
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Gram-negative bacteria have intrinsic adjuvant roles.8,11 Several recombinant
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Meningococcus B antigens formulated with homologous strain OMVs increase
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immunogenicity.10 The serine protease HtrA of Chlamydia muridarum expressed with
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a pET21b+ vector is accumulated in the OMVs of Escherichia coli, and the resulting
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OMVs can induce neutralizing antibodies in an in vitro infectious assay, whereas the
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purified recombinant HtrA cannot.12 However, OMV vaccination is limited by the
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incorporation of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or lipooligosaccharide (LOS) into the
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bilayer of OMVs.13 Due to the lack of outer membrane and the existence of rigid cell
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walls, direct evidence on membrane vesicle (MV) formation in Gram-positive bacteria,
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such as Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis, was only recently demonstrated
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through transmission electron microscopic and proteomic analyses.14,15 MVs of
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Gram-positive bacteria share common features with the OMVs of Gram-negative ones;
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however, the mechanisms by which Gram-positive bacteria secrete MVs are largely
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unknown.14 Both MVs and OMVs are spherical non-replicating nanoparticles with the
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diameter of 20–200 nm and contain phospholipid bilayers that are incorporated with 3
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various bacterial proteins and lumens carrying periplasmic constituents.14,16,17
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Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv MVs not only elicited protection as well as live
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BCG vaccine but also boosted BCG vaccine efficacy.18 When intraperitoneally
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injected, Streptococcus pneumoniae MVs protected mice from the homologous strain
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and other pathogenic serotype of S. pneumoniae infections.19 However, application
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studies on nanoscale MVs derived from Gram-positive bacteria to protect
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heterologous infections are not available.17
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We proposed a safe staphylococcal platform in which the toxicity of MVs was
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attenuated (∆agrMVs), and several ∆agrMV-incorporated components were characterized
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as capable of delivering heterologous viral antigens that resulted in the release of
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multivalent nanoscale ∆agrMVs against viral infections (Scheme 1). Using two DENV
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consensus peptides as model antigens, we demonstrated that the successful
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incorporation of DENV peptides into the staphylococcal
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administration of these engineered
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immune response against all the serotypes of DENV. Our data revealed the suitability
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of the staphylococcal
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MV vaccines and illustrated the potential of using this platform in developing
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multivalent viral vaccines.
∆agr
∆agr
∆agr
MVs and the
MVs induced a multivalent and protective
MV platform for developing a new generation of nanoscale
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Scheme 1. Schematic representation of the multivalent nanoscale strategy. 4
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∆agr
MV generation
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Vesicle release is a ubiquitous process that occurs during normal bacterial growth
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and has been extensively characterized in Gram-negative bacteria (OMVs).20 The
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secretion of MVs from S. aureus was reported for the first time in 2009,14 and such
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report not only broke the assumption that Gram-positive bacteria could hardly release
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MVs because of the existence of thick and rigid cell walls but also provided an
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alternative to OMVs for developing potential vaccines for clinical applications.
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Taking advantage of the available genome sequences, MVs of several laboratory S.
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aureus strains (Table S1) were separately isolated, as previously described.21
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Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed that all the tested S. aureus strains
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can secrete nano-sized MVs with the diameter of 49.8 ± 17.4 nm (Figures 1A and S1).
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Although the amount of vesicle released between strains has no significant difference
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(Figure 1B), the protein components that are incorporated into the staphylococcal
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MVs are strain-dependent (Figures 1C and 1D). Among the tested strains, RN4220
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has a frame shift at the 3′-terminal of the agrA gene that could delay the
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agr-controlled expression of virulence factors and may produce safe MVs.22 In
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addition, RN4220 has defects in type I restriction-modification system and is more
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convenient for performing genetic operations.23 Therefore, S. aureus RN4220 was
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selected as the starting strain in this study.
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Figure 1. Analysis of MVs derived from different S. aureus strains. (A) The MVs produced by
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S. aureus strains observed under the transmission electron microscope. The bars representing
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200 nm were indicated. (B) The production of MVs from each S. aureus strain was shown as total
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proteins (µg) in MVs derived from 1 L overnight cultures determined by the Bradford assay; n = 3
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experiments. (C) SDS-PAGE analysis of MVs derived from different S. aureus strains. The
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molecular weights of a protein marker were indicated on the left. (D) The abundance of proteins in
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the MVs of S. aureus was analyzed by the plot lane tool of ImageJ software version 1.46 (National
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Institutes of Health, USA).
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The production of S. aureus strain RN4220 MVs achieved its peak at 22 h
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post-culture (Figure 2A). Although lacking in LPS and LOS, the MVs derived from S.
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aureus could still contain some species-specific virulence factors that affect the safety
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of a potential vaccine.24 Dose-dependent experiments revealed that the survival rate
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was 0%, 10%, 20%, 50%, 80%, and 100% after BALB/c mice were intraperitoneally
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challenged with 80, 64, 51, 41, 33, and 26 µg of the wild-type RN4220-derived MVs
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(wtMVs), respectively (Figure 2B). According to the Bliss method, the calculated LD50
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for
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intraperitoneal administration. The high toxicity of
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fact that around 100 bacterial proteins are incorporated into S. aureus wtMVs,24, 25 and
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several toxic components are enriched during the MV concentration procedure.26 For
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the safety of MVs used as nano-sized vaccine delivery vehicles, characterizing every
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toxic component in wtMVs and eliminating its effect is a great challenge. Our strategy
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was to delete the whole locus of staphylococcal agr (Figure S2), a key quorum
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sensing system consisting of agrB, agrD, agrC, agrA, and RNAIII in S. aureus,27 to
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reduce the expression of virulence factors. As expected, the mice survival rate was
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100% even after they were intraperitoneally injected with 200 µg of the agr-deleted
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RN4220-derived MVs (∆agrMVs) (Figure 2B). We then examined the systemic
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inflammatory indexes IL-6 and TNFα to assess the potential toxicities of
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∆agr
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reduced after intraperitoneal injection of same dose of ∆agrMVs (Figure 2C, left panel).
wt
MVs was 2.1 mg/kg with a 95% confidence interval of 1.85–2.35 mg/kg for
MVs in vivo. Compared with
wt
wt
MVs can be explained by the
wt
MVs and
MVs, the levels of serum IL-6 were significantly 6
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However, the significantly increased TNFα level was only observed in the high-dose
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wt
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∆agr
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mouse challenged with 40 µg
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aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and lactate dehydrogenase
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(LDH) were also determined to further evaluate the liver toxicities of
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∆agr
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levels of ALT, AST, and LDH, whereas 20 µg
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levels compared with 100 µg
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RN4220-∆agr (∆agrMVs) exhibit attenuation in the mouse model and are safe for
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antigen delivery vehicles.
MV-challenged group (Figure 2C, right panel). Even challenged with a high dose of MVs (100 µg), mouse serum IL-6 and TNFα levels were still lower than those of wt
MVs (Figure S3). In addition, serum alanine
MVs. As shown in Figure 2D, both 20 µg and 100 µg
∆agr
wt
∆agr
wt
MVs and
MVs could not alter the
MVs significantly increased their
MVs. Taken together, MVs derived from S. aureus
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Figure 2. Deletion of agr locus attenuated the MVs of S. aureus. (A) Production of S. aureus
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RN4220
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BALB/c mice (6–8 weeks old) challenged with wtMVs (80, 64, 51, 41, 33, and 26 µg) and ∆agrMVs
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(200 µg) (n = 10 for each group). (C) Mouse serum levels of IL-6 and TNFα 6 h
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post-intraperitoneal injection of wtMVs (10, 20, and 40 µg) and ∆agrMVs (10, 20, and 40 µg) (n = 4
wt
MVs during different growth stages (n = 3 for each time point). (B) Survival rates of
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wt
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for each dose). (D) Hepatic injury indexes after intraperitoneal injection of
MVs (20 µg) and
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∆agr
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group). Data are presented as the mean ± SD. n.s. represented no significance, * P < 0.05, **
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P < 0.01, and *** P < 0.001.
MVs (20 µg, 100 µg). CCl4 (10% in corn oil) was used as a positive control (n = 4 for each
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SDS-PAGE revealed that the protein patterns of RN4220-∆agr and wild-type
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∆agr
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RN4220 were very similar; however, the protein components of
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some extent compared with those of the
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performed a proteomic analysis to explain why the agr locus deletion reduced the
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toxicity of MVs. A total of 92 proteins were identified in the
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components were characterized in the ∆agrMVs (Table S2). wtMVs and ∆agrMVs had 61
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common proteins (Figure 3B). This phenomenon has also been observed in a recent
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study where the MVs from three S. aureus isolates carried 25 common proteins and
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60 strain-specific proteins.28 Proteomics analysis also revealed that the most abundant
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protein in
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modified protein abundance index (emPAI) value of 93876.4, followed by PSMα
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(2259 Da, emPAI = 6.9) and alpha-hemolysin (emPAI = 1.02) (Figure 3C). However,
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these virulence factors were absent in the
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Table S2), thereby supporting the survival rate of the ∆agrMV-challenged mouse model
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(Figure 2B). Gene Ontology (GO) analysis revealed that the major components in
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∆agr
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metabolic process with catalytic activity (Figure S4). Moreover, Keiser et al.29
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reported that detoxifying the LOS of OMVs by disabling the lpxL2 gene in group B
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Meningococcus results in reduced viability of the bacteria; however, deletion of agr
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locus in S. aureus (RN4220-∆agr) would not affect bacterial growth (Figure S5A),
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and
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RN4220-∆agr (Figure S5B), thereby indicating a successfully engineered host of S.
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aureus RN4220-∆agr for the production of nanoscale vesicles.
wt
MVs varied to
MVs (Figure 3A). We subsequently
wt
MVs, and 119
wt
MVs was delta-hemolysin (5009 Da), which had an exponentially
∆agr
MVs from RN4220-∆agr (Figure 3D,
MVs were cytosolic and cytoplasmic proteins that are involved in the cellular
∆agr
MV protein patterns were similar after logarithmic growth of the engineered
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Figure 3. Proteomic analysis of proteins incorporated in wtMVs and ∆agrMVs. (A) Comparison
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of protein profiles between S. aureus RN4220 and RN4220-∆agr, as well as their derived MVs
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(wtMVs and ∆agrMVs). The sizes of a protein marker were indicated on the left. The major bands of
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∆agr
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indicated by a black arrow. (B) Proteins detected in the proteomic analysis with liquid
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chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) in the MVs derived from S. aureus
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RN4220 and RN4220-∆agr. The number (percent) of the identical and different proteins in the
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wt
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protein in wtMVs was delta-hemolysin with an emPAI value of 93876.4, followed by PSMα and
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alpha-hemolysin, as indicated. (D) Major components detected in
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The major components in ∆agrMVs seemed scattered with the most predominant protein of enolase
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(47,177 Da, emPAI = 3.4).
MVs were indicated by black triangles, and the abundant band that was absent in ∆agrMVs was
MVs and ∆agrMVs was indicated. (C) Major components detected in wtMVs. The most abundant
∆agr
MVs with the emPAI > 1.
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The major components that corresponded to the rich bands in SDS-PAGE gel were
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shared by wtMVs and ∆agrMVs (Figure 3A). Eight abundant bands with variable sizes
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in the
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by LC-MS/MS to select the optimal components that can deliver heterologous
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antigens. Seven of these proteins were also identified in the proteomic analysis of
∆agr
MV gel (Figure 3A, indicated by black triangles) were further characterized
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wt
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potential capacity of these proteins in delivering heterologous antigens, a DNA
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sequence encoding 3×FLAG tag (DYKDHDGDYKDHDIDYKDDDDK) was
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chemically synthesized and genetically in-frame fused with the 3′-terminal of each
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protein encoding gene of S. aureus RN4220-∆agr through homologous recombination.
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Four
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RN4220-∆agr/Mntc-FLAG, RN4220-∆agr/PdhB-FLAG, RN4220-∆agr/PdhA-FLAG,
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and RN4220-∆agr/Eno-FLAG (Figure S6). These fusion proteins could be detected in
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the knocked-in strains and incorporated into the ∆agrMVs by using mAb against FLAG
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(Figures 4A and 4B). Quantitative Western blot showed that the FLAG-fused proteins
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represented (3.43 ± 0.73)%, (5.07 ± 0.82)%, (2.64 ± 0.61)%, and (2.89 ± 0.74)% of
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the total
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Eno-FLAG, respectively (Figures 4C and S7). However, the reasons for the failure of
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RplE (20.3 kDa), PdhC (46.3 kDa), and GlnA (50.9 kDa) in carrying heterologous
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antigens remained unclear. The failure might either be due to the technical problems
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or the gene itself for S. aureus survival. At least four abundant components with
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variable sizes in
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∆agr
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attenuating toxicity while possessing a heterologous antigen delivery capability.
MVs and
∆agr
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MVs, and their emPAI values were above 1.0 (Table S3). To test the
knocked-in
strains
were
successfully
constructed,
designated
as
∆agr
MV proteins for Mntc-FLAG, PdhB-FLAG, PdhA-FLAG, and
∆agr
MVs are capable of delivering heterologous antigens into the
MVs, thereby highlighting the staphylococcal platform as an effective mode of
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Figure 4. Characterization of protein components’ potential for delivery of heterologous
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antigens. (A) Western blot analysis of 3×FLAG-tagged proteins in the total cell lysates using
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anti-FLAG monoclonal antibodies. The full-length blots are presented in Figure S10. (B) Western
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blot analysis of 3×FLAG-tagged proteins in total
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Experimental section. (C) Abundance of FLAG-tagged protein in the
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of
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and analyzed by the plot lane tool of the ImageJ software version 1.46 (right panel). Certain
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FLAG-tagged proteins were detected by Western blot (central panel); their amounts were
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determined using a standard curve from the Western blot for pure Eno-FLAG in
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S7) and indicated on the top as a percentage to the total
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corresponding to the band in gel was indicated by a black triangle.
∆agr
MVs prepared as described in the ∆agr
MVs. The total proteins
∆agr
MVs derived from each knocked-in strain were separated by 12% SDS-PAGE (left panel)
∆agr
MVs (Figure
∆agr
MV proteins. The relative peak
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To test the validity of staphylococcal platform for the generation of multivalent
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∆agr
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DENV serotypes were selected as model antigens. DENV has four serotypes, which
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were designated as DENV-1, -2, -3, and -4. These serotypes are widely distributed in
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tropical and subtropical regions that affect approximately 3.6 billion people
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worldwide.30 Previous reports indicated that EDIII is the major protective domain for
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prevention of DENV infections.31,32 Among the four DENV serotypes, the EDIIIs of
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DENV-1 and -3 are the most similar to each another, whereas DENV-2 is the closest
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to DENV-4.33 To simplify the construction process, physicochemical property method
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(PCP method)33,34 was used to generate two PCP-consensus EDIII sequences
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representing DENV-1/-3 (EDIIIconA) and DENV-2/-4 (EDIIIconB). Four EDIII
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PCP-consensus sequences (DENV-1–4con, Figure S8A) were first created based on
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the individual alignments of 356 DENV-1, 147 DENV-2, 146 DENV-3, and 181
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DENV-4 sequences derived from GenBank (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). Then,
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EDIIIconA was obtained by PCP method using DENV-1con and DENV-3con as
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inputs, analogously to obtain EDIIIconB that represents the DENV-2/-4 (Figure S8B).
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The coding sequences of EDIIIconA and EDIIIconB were deduced according to
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the codon usage bias of S. aureus RN4220 (Figure S8C) and were chemically
MVs, the envelope E protein domain III (EDIII, residues 296–395) of different
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synthesized to decrease the effect of codon bias on the expression of target fusion
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protein. Then, EDIIIconA and EDIIIconB sequences were in-frame fused with the
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3′-terminal of eno and pdhB genes in the genomic DNA of S. aureus RN4220-∆agr,
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respectively (Figure 5A). The expected productions of Eno-EDIIIconA and
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PdhB-EDIIIconB fusion proteins were confirmed by Western blot analysis in both
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total cell lysates of the engineered bacteria and the total ∆agrMVs (Figures 5B and 5C).
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Immunoelectron microscopy (IEM) revealed that DENV EDIII antigens showed
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efficient labeling using anti-EDIII and were mainly carried in the lumen or presented
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on the surface of
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can be delivered into the
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vesicular components of S. aureus RN4220-∆agr.
∆agr
MVs (Figures 5D and 5E). The viral antigen (dengue EDIIIcon) ∆agr
MVs through the orientation of characterized major
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Figure 5. Expression and identification of the Eno-EDIIIconA and PdhB-EDIIIconB fusion
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proteins. (A) Schematic representation of the size changes when Eno and PdhB fused with
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EDIIIconA and EDIIIcinB, respectively. (B) Western blot analysis of target fusion proteins in the
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total cell lysates of RN4220-∆agr and RN4220-∆agr-EDIIIconA/B using anti-Eno antibodies (left
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panel), anti-PdhB antibodies (central panel), and anti-DENV-2con antibodies (right panel). The
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full-length blots are presented in Figure S10. (C) Western blot analysis of fusion proteins in the
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total
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panel), anti-PdhB antibodies (central panel), and anti-DENV-2con antibodies (right panel). (D)
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Immunoelectron micrographs of EDIIIconA/B contained
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Experimental section. Micrographs show efficient labeling of EDIIIconA/B-fused proteins with
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mouse-anti-DENV-2con antibodies (indicated by black arrows). (E) Immunoelectron micrographs
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of ∆agrMVs derived from RN4220-∆agr served as negative control.
∆agr
MVs of RN4220-∆agr and RN4220-∆agr-EDIIIconA/B using anti-Eno antibodies (left
∆agr
MVs detected, as described in the
300 301
Given the potent component-mediated delivery of viral antigens into the ∆agrMVs,
302
we speculated that engineered dengue ∆agrMVs can evoke host immune responses. The
303
EDIIIconA/B contained multivalent ∆agrMV-induced higher titers of antibodies against
304
the recombinant EDIII (rEDIII) proteins of all four DENV serotypes than the
305
EDIIIconB contained
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multivalent
∆agr
MVs
∆agr
MVs did (Figure 6). With only prime vaccination, the
induced
higher
binding
antibodies
13
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the
rEDIII
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∆agr
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protein-challenged (Figure 6A). EDIIIconB contained
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antibodies against the rEDIII of DENV-2 and DENV-4. Similar results were observed
309
in the prime-boost vaccination schedule (Figures 6B and 6C), which were concordant
310
with the fact that EDIIIconB (representing DENV-2/-4) contains less epitopes against
311
DENV-1 and DENV-3. In the three prime-boost schedules, EDIIIconA/B contained
312
multivalent
313
serotypes of DENV regardless of the use of adjuvants (Figures 6B and 6C), thereby
314
suggesting that staphylococcal ∆agrMVs may have an adjuvant effect similar to that of
315
the OMVs derived from Gram-negative bacteria.8,11 The engineered ∆agrMVs carrying
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dengue EDIII antigens can effectively evoke humoral immune responses in mice with
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intrinsic adjuvant activity. However, the mechanism by which staphylococcal ∆agrMVs
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display adjuvant capacity requires further investigation.
∆agr
MV-evoked higher binding
MV-induced similar humoral immune responses against all the four
319 320
Figure 6. Capture ELISA detected the binding antibodies in mouse sera against recombinant
321
EDIII (rEDIII) antigens (DENV-1–4con). (A) Sera derived from immunized mice with a single
322
vaccination of EDIIIconA/B or EDIIIconB ∆agrMVs without adjuvants. Sera from mice challenged
323
with DENV-1–4con (rEDIII) and PBS served as positive and negative controls, respectively. (B) 14
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Sera derived from immunized mice with thrice prime-boost schedule of EDIIIconA/B or
325
EDIIIconB
326
prime-boost schedule of EDIIIconA/B or EDIIIconB
327
arbitrary units. Data represent three independent experiments and expressed as mean ± SD.
∆agr
MVs without adjuvants. (C) Sera derived from immunized mice with thrice ∆agr
MVs with Freund’s adjuvants. AU,
328 329
To test whether the immunized mouse sera could neutralize virus infection, plaque
330
reduction neutralization test (PRNT)35 was performed. The neutralizing effect of
331
EDIIIconA/B contained
332
dose-dependent. The 320 times diluted immune sera could still inhibit approximately
333
75% formation of DENV-2 plaques, whereas the control sera at 1:40 dilution could
334
only offer an inhibition of less than 20% (Figure 7A). Immunofluorescence assay
335
(IFA) was also used to monitor the multiplication of DENV-2 in Vero cells after
336
neutralizing the virus with immunized murine sera against EDIIIconA/B multivalent
337
∆agr
338
DENV-2 infection, whereas the normal BALB/c mouse sera could not (Figure 7B).
339
These results were consistent with those of PRNT (Figure 7A). Furthermore, the
340
protective activity of the immunized sera was also evaluated in vivo. Approximately
341
80% of the tested suckling mice were protected from the lethal dose challenge of
342
DENV-2, which was pre-incubated with 1:80 diluted immunized murine sera. All the
343
control mice died 10 days after they were post-challenged by normal sera pretreated
344
virus (Figure 7C). EDIIIconA/B-loaded ∆agrMVs can induce dengue-specific humoral
345
immune responses and confer effective protection against DENV-2 infection.
∆agr
MV-immunized mouse sera (three prime-boost) was
MVs. The immunized sera diluted at 1:80 could completely protect Vero cells from
15
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346 ∆agr
347
Figure 7. Protective roles of EDIIIconA/B multivalent
MV sera against DENV-2. (A)
348
Neutralizing activities of immunized sera against DENV-2 determined by plaque reduction
349
neutralization test (PRNT). Diluted sera from immunized mice treated thrice with prime-boost of
350
EDIIIconA/B
351
cells. Results were expressed as the percentage blocking (PB%) in PRNT. PB% was calculated as
352
described in the Experimental section. Normal mouse sera served as negative control. (B)
353
Multiplication of DENV-2 in Vero cells tested with an immunofluorescence assay (IFA). The
354
dilutions of sera from the EDIIIconA/B
355
were used as negative control. (C) Survival rates of BALB/c suckling mice challenged with
356
DENV-2 pre-incubated with 1:80 diluted sera from EDIIIconA/B
357
circle) or with sera from normal mice (filled square).
∆agr
MVs without adjuvants were incubated with DENV-2 before infection to Vero
∆agr
MV-immunized mice were indicated, and normal sera
∆agr
MV-immunized mice (filled
358 359
In conclusion, the applicability of the major components of S. aureus MVs for
360
delivering serotypic viral antigens as multivalent nanoscale vaccines was tested. We
361
proposed an agr-deleted S. aureus strain with four well-characterized MV components
362
for the delivery of heterologous antigens to produce multivalent vaccines. This safe 16
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platform has a broad range of biotechnological applications, including the generation
364
of multivalent vaccines against viruses with several serotypes and/or different viruses
365
(Figure S9). However, this platform has some limitations. It may not be particularly
366
useful for expressing glycosylated antigens. The protective viral peptides without
367
glycosylation, such as DENV EDIIIs, are satisfied. In addition, the production of
368
∆agr
369
a reasonable scale for pharmaceutical applications, and further biotechnological
370
optimization is needed. Our study provides an innovative attempt to use
371
Gram-positive bacteria-released nanoscale MVs as immunologic tools for fighting
372
viral infections.
MVs using engineered RN4220-∆agr may rarely be sufficiently efficient to achieve
373 374 375 376
ASSOCIATED CONTENT
377
Supporting Information
378
Detailed description of the Experimental section and additional data are provided.
379
Figures S1–S10, Tables S1–S5.
380 381
AUTHOR INFORMATION
382
Corresponding Authors
383
*X. R. (
[email protected]); R. Z. (
[email protected]).
384 385
Author Contributions
386
X.R., R.Z., and X.H. conceived and designed the experiments. J.Y., Z.H., W.S., Y.Z.,
387
H.P., X.C., and X.Z. performed the experiments. J.Y., X.R., Q.H., M.L., J.Z., and Y.Y.
388
analyzed the data. J.Y., Y.Y., and X.R. wrote the manuscript. All authors discussed the
389
results and commented on the manuscript. The principal investigator is X.R. and R.Z.
390 391
ORCID
392
Jizhen Yuan, 0000-0003-4693-9534; Jie Yang, 0000-0002-2886-9774; Zhen Hu, 17
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Yang,
0000-0002-3707-5052;
Page 18 of 21
393
0000-0002-1077-6991;
Yi
394
0000-0002-0752-5016;
Qiwen
395
0000-0002-9481-2733; Huagang Peng, 0000-0002-3482-0213; Xiaopeng Zhang,
396
0000-0002-3880-1810;
Xinyu
Cai,
397
0000-0002-1652-5421;
Ming
Li,
398
0000-0003-2831-1241;
Renjie
Zhou,
399
0000-0002-9905-760X.
Hu,
Weilong
Shang,
Ying
Zheng,
0000-0001-6689-6194;
0000-0002-3045-6899; 0000-0003-1662-6465; 0000-0003-3046-567X;
Junmin
Zhu,
Xiaomei
Hu,
Xiancai
Rao,
400 401
Notes
402
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
403 404
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
405
We thank Prof. Daoguo Zhou (Purdue University) for critical reading of the
406
manuscript. This work was supported by the national natural science foundation of
407
China (grant no. 31270979 to X.R.), the new drug development project of China
408
(grant no. 2012ZX09103301-038 to X.R.) and the translational project of TMMU
409
(grant no. 2016XZH01 to X.R.). The funders had no role in study design, data
410
collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.
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