Abstract
Two excellent C3H/HeN mouse models of spotted fever rickettsioses caused by the distantly related organisms, Rickettsia conorii and Rickettsia australis, were utilized to evaluate the possibility of the stimulation of broad cross-protective immunity. Sublethal infection stimulated complete immunity, that is absence of disease, after challenge with a dose of the heterologous Rickettsia that uniformly killed naïve mice. In contrast, heterologous immune sera did not protect mice against a lethal dose (two LD50) of rickettsiae in the mouse toxicity neutralization assay, the standard method for evaluation of rickettsial vaccine potency. These observations suggest that development of a broadly protective vaccine against spotted fever group (SFG) rickettsiae is feasible, and the results indicate that mouse toxicity neutralization is an inappropriate method for evaluation of candidate vaccines.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 3901-3905 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Vaccine |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue number | 25-26 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2003 |
Keywords
- Mouse models
- Protective immunity
- Rickettsia australis
- Rickettsia conorii
- Toxicity neutralization
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Molecular Medicine
- General Immunology and Microbiology
- General Veterinary
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
- Infectious Diseases