Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

The Korean Society for Microbiology and Biotechnology (한국미생물·생명공학회)
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Humanized Mice for the Evaluation of Francisella tularensis Vaccine Candidates

  • Oh, Hanseul (Department of Laboratory Animal Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University) ;
  • Kim, C-Yoon (Department of Stem Cell Biology, School of Medicine, Konkuk University) ;
  • Kim, Chang-Hwan (The 5th R&D Institute-3, Agency for Defense Development) ;
  • Hur, Gyeung-Haeng (The 5th R&D Institute-3, Agency for Defense Development) ;
  • Lee, Ji Min (Department of Laboratory Animal Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University) ;
  • Chang, Seo-Na (Department of Laboratory Animal Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University) ;
  • Park, Jae-Hak (Department of Laboratory Animal Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University)
  • Received : 2017.07.31
  • Accepted : 2017.11.05
  • Published : 2018.01.28
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Abstract

Francisella tularensis (FT), a highly infectious pathogen, is considered to be a potential biological weapon owing to the current lack of a human vaccine against it. Tul4 and FopA, both outer membrane proteins of FT, play an important role in the bacterium's immunogenicity. In the present study, we evaluated the immune response of mice - humanized with human CD34+ cells (hu-mice) - to a cocktail of recombinant Tul4 and FopA (rTul4 and rFopA), which were codon-optimized and expressed in Escherichia coli. Not only did the cocktail-immunized hu-mice produce a significant human immunoglobulin response, they also exhibited prolonged survival against an attenuated live vaccine strain as well as human T cells in the spleen. These results suggest that the cocktail of rTul4 and rFopA had successfully induced an immune response in the hu-mice, demonstrating the potential of this mouse model for use in the evaluation of FT vaccine candidates.

Keywords

References

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