Abstract
Certain non-mammalian cell wall sugars are conserved across a variety of pathogenic bacteria. This conservation of structure, combined with their structural differences when compared with mammalian sugars, make them potentially powerful epitopes for immunization. Here, we report the synthesis of a glycoconjugate that displays the so-called ‘inner core’ sugars of Gram-negative bacterial cell walls. We also describe an antibacterial vaccination strategy based on immunization with the glycoconjugate and the subsequent administration of an inhibitor that uncovers the corresponding epitope in pathogenic bacteria. The core tetrasaccharide, Hep2Kdo2, a common motif in bacterial lipopolysaccharides, was synthesized and attached via a chain linker to a diphtheria toxin mutant carrier protein. This glycoconjugate generated titres of antibodies towards the inner core tetrasaccharide of the lipopolysaccharide, which were capable of binding the cell-surface sugars of bacterial pathogenic strains including Neisseria meningitidis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli. Exposure of bacterial lipopolysaccharide in in vitro experiments, using an inhibitor of capsular polysaccharide transport, enabled potent bacterial killing with antiserum.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank R. Barrow and X. Bai (Public Health England) for performing SBA assays, G. Lipowsky for managing immunization experiments and T. Claridge for assistance with NMR analyses. The authors acknowledge GlycoVaxyn for financial support. B.G.D. was a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award recipient.
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L.K., B.V., A.F., M.K. and B.G.D. designed the experiments. L.K., J.P., A.N.Z. and B.V. conducted the carbohydrate syntheses. B.V. generated protein scaffolds and constructed the corresponding glycoconjugates. L.K., B.V. and L.N. performed the immunological experiments. L.K., B.V., M.K. and B.G.D. analysed the results. L.K., B.V. and B.G.D. wrote the paper. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.
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M.K., L.N. and A.F. are employed by GlycoVaxyn.
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Kong, L., Vijayakrishnan, B., Kowarik, M. et al. An antibacterial vaccination strategy based on a glycoconjugate containing the core lipopolysaccharide tetrasaccharide Hep2Kdo2. Nature Chem 8, 242–249 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2432
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2432
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