Progress Exam 3 (November 7 - 8 - 11) Flashcards
How many deaths by 2050 because of the rise of drug-resistant infections (to 70%)?
40 million deaths because of antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
On what ten fronts can we tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR)?
- Public awareness
- Antibiotics in agriculture and the environment
- Surveillance
- Human capital
- Global innovation fund
- Sanitation and hygiene
- Vaccines and alternatives
- Rapid diagnostics
- Drugs
- International coalition for action
Tackling AMR on population level
National level (laboratory-based) surveillance:
* Incidence
* Outbreaks
* Vaccine effectiveness
Tackling AMR on individual level
Vaccines in national immunization program
* Childhood vaccines
* Adult vaccines
Two ways in which vaccines can exert their function (mechanisms).
- Toxin neutralization: binding of anti-toxins (antibodies) that catch the toxins.
- Promoting recognition and killing:
- Complement activation and lysis for Gram-negative bacteria
- Phagocytosis and killing for Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria.
What are desired antigen properties (for vaccination)?
- Abundant
- Available
- Conserved
Which of the desired antigen properties apply to capsular polysaccharides?
- Abundant
- Available
What is the protective function of capsular polysaccharides (CPS)?
CPS offers protection from complement-mediated killing and phagocytosis.
They also use antigenic variation for immune escape.
Four examples of encapsulated bacteria that cause invasive disease in humans
- S. pneumoniae
- Group B Streptococcus
- H. influenzae B
- N. meningitidis
Italics are in the National Immunization program.
Characteristics - both clinical and bacterial - of N. meningitidis
- Gram-negative diplococcus
- Human-specific
- Natural habitat: human nasopharynx (5 - 10% of population colonized)
- ~0.01% of colonized hosts develop invasive disease
- Invasive meningococcal disease (IMD): sepsis + meningitis
What are the most prevalent disease-causing meningococcal serogroups?
A, B, C, W and Y.
What is a key observation of bactericidal antibodies and IMD cases?
Inverse correlation group-specific bactericidal antibodies and IMD cases.
What kind of immune response does the plain polysaccharide vaccine (PPV) induce?
T cell-independent responses
What are the restrictions of vaccines focused on the plain polysaccharide of N. meningitidis?
Insufficient for population-wide application:
* Not immunogenicity in young children.
* No immunological memory –> repeated immunizations required.
* Limited class switching (only IgM, IgG2) and afifnity maturation.
* Ineffective against carriage –> only individual protection.
What kind of response does protein conjugation (PCV) elicit?
T cell-dependent responses
What is the difference between conjugate (PCV) versus plain polysaccharide (PPV) vaccines?
- Immunological memory
- Class switching and affinity maturation –> high affinity IgG
- Effective in infants
- Herd immunity: by reducing carriage and transmission, protection is extended to non-vaccinated individuals.
Protein conjugation is only focused on …
Only protects against one serogroup.
What kind of vaccine is now used against N. meningitidis?
A multivalent conjugate vaccine targeting CPS ACWY-serogroups.
What are the four limitations/challenges for CPS-based vaccines?
- Vaccine coverage is limited to subgroup of bacteria (there are more than 90 serotypes, but there’s currently maximum 24-valent vaccine)
- Glycan antigen is not immunogenic.
- Glycan structures are similar to human structures (mimicry). There’s a risk of inducing autoreactive antibodies.
- Disease cause by low or non-encapsulated species/strains (i.e. non-typeable strains)
What does an infection with Strep A cause?
Wide range of disease manifestations. Localized (strep throat), invasive (toxic shock), post-infectious sequelae.
Why is a Strep A vaccine feasible?
There’s natural exposure and infection with Strep A and that results in protective immunity.
What is the challenge for Strep A vaccines?
- Unclear correlates of protection.
- Risk for induction of autoreactivity.
- Capsule mimics host hyaluronan and is therefore not immunogenic.
What protein provides type-specific protective immunity against meningococcus?
M-protein
- Large antigenic variation with > 200 emm types identified.
- Large global diversity in emm types that cause disease.
- Molecular mimicry with host molecules, risk of autoimmune sequelae?
What type of antigen would cover all Strep A emm types?
Conserved antigen
What structure is conserved across Strep A population?
Group A carbohydrates (GAC)
What is the immunogenic part of Group A carbohydrates (GAC)?
GlcNAc
What are the pros and cons of using GAC as vaccine antigen in the battle against Strep A infections?
Advantages
* Conserved epitope: universal protection
* Surface exposed
* Protective capacity as glycoconjugate vaccine in mouse models
Disadvantages
* Evidence that GAC GlcNAc side chain is associated with autoimmune sequelae.
What is important for full virulence of Strep A?
The GlcNAc side chain!
Glycosyltransferase Gacl is essential for GlcNAc side chain formation.
Is there an effect of antibodies against GAC in vitro and in vivo?
- In vitro: enhanced clearance
- In vivo: enhanced protection
What changes the quality of the immunological response resulting in immune memory, protection in young children and herd immunity?
Conjugation of glycans to proteins
Two examples of vertical gene transfer
- Spontaneous mutation
- Deleterious spontaneous mutation
What are the two possible ways of gene transfer?
- Horizontal gene transfer (‘localized sex’)
- Vertical gene transfer
What does the genome comprises of?
All chromosome + all plasmids
Bacterial chromosomes are often …, but can be …
Bacterial chromosomes are often circular, but can be linear. Combinatons occur.
How many plasmids does Borrelia burgdorferi has?
21 plasmids
What mechanisms do bacteria use for horizontal gene transfer?
- Bacterial transformation by releasing DNA (incl. for example an antibiotic resistance gene)
- Bacterial transduction by releasing phages.
- Bacterial conjugation by transposons that jump into plasmids and get transferred to recipient cells.
What are transposons?
Jumping genes with the minimal requirements (‘IS elements’ - inserting sequence):
* Gene encoding transposase (catalyzes transfer or copying of the element).
* Flanked by inverted-repeat sequences (target for transposase).
Function of transposases
Recognizing inverted repeats and excises the transposon.
What do composite transposons contain?
Additional genes between two inverted copies of IS elements (‘mini-transposons’).
Restriction-modification systems consist of:
- Restriction enzymes
- Modification methylase
When methylated restriction of that particular site is not possible anymore.
Loss of restriction modification gene complex results in
- Cell death
- Repair
- Genome rearrangements
Difference between incoming DNA from:
- Closely related bacterium
- Phage
- Restriction of incoming DNA from a closely related bacterium (harboring similar Chi sequences) generates DNA fragments which can be utilized as substrates for homologous recombination by the RecBCD pathway.
- In contrast, the fragments generated by the restriction of phage DNA (lacking the Chi sequence) are recognized as nonself and subjected to further degradation by the RecBCD pathway.
Causes of genome evolution in bacteria
- Deletion, insertion and recombination
- Horizontal gene transfer
- Core and flexible gene pool
Relation between genome, core genome and the accessory genome
The more genomes, the smaller the core genome and the larger the accessory genome.
What are pathogenicity/genomic islands?
- Large (~ 40 kb)
- Contain genes associated with virulence, regulation and mobility.
- Inserted in a single site, often adjacent to a tRNA gene.
- Has different GC content.
- At least some PAIs hijack a phage to spread; PICI (phage-inducible chromosomal islands); for example by inhibiting thte recognition of a certain protein that normally incorporates the phage cosB gene into the phage by TerS by changing it to Rpp-TerS that incorporates PICI cosB gene.
What are typical PAIs?
Distinct regions of DNA that are present in the genome of pathogenic bacteria but absent in nonpathogenic strains of the same or related species.