Enhancement of the protective efficacy of an oprF DNA vaccine against Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

The outer membrane protein F gene (oprF) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa was recently shown by us to protect mice from P. aeruginosa chronic pulmonary infection when used as a DNA vaccine administered by three biolistic (gene gun) intradermal inoculations given at 2-week intervals. In the present study, we used two different strategies to improve the protective efficacy of the DNA vaccine.

A chimaeric plant virus vaccine protects mice against a bacterial infection.

The plant virus cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV) is an efficient carrier of foreign peptides for the generation of strong humoral immune responses. Peptides derived from both viruses and bacteria are strongly immunogenic when displayed on the surface of CPMV and elicit high titres of peptide-specific antibody. However, the protective effects of antibodies generated using bacterial epitopes in this system have yet to be demonstrated.