Intranasal delivery of OMVs decorated with antigens induces specific local and systemic immune responses.

is an obligate intracellular pathogen responsible for the most prevalent bacterial sexually transmitted disease globally. The high prevalence of chlamydial infections underscores the urgent need for licensed and effective vaccines to prevent transmission in populations. Bacterial outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) have emerged as promising mucosal vaccine carriers due to their inherent adjuvant properties and the ability to display heterologous antigens.

Heterologous Display of PmpD Passenger at the Surface of OMVs.

is the bacterial pathogen that causes most cases of sexually transmitted diseases annually. To combat the global spread of asymptomatic infection, development of effective (mucosal) vaccines that offer both systemic and local immune responses is considered a high priority. In this study, we explored the expression of full-length (FL) PmpD, as well as truncated PmpD passenger constructs fused to a "display" autotransporter (AT) hemoglobin protease (HbpD) and studied their inclusion into outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) of and Typhimurium.

Overexpression of the Bam Complex Improves the Production of MOMP in the Outer Membrane.

A licensed vaccine is not yet available. Recombinant major outer membrane protein (-MOMP), the most abundant constituent of the chlamydial outer membrane complex, is considered the most attractive candidate for subunit-based vaccine formulations. Unfortunately, -MOMP is difficult to express in its native structure in the outer membrane (OM).

A bacterial extracellular vesicle-based intranasal vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 protects against disease and elicits neutralizing antibodies to wild-type and Delta variants.

Several vaccines have been introduced to combat the coronavirus infectious disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Current SARS-CoV-2 vaccines include mRNA-containing lipid nanoparticles or adenoviral vectors that encode the SARS-CoV-2 Spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2, inactivated virus, or protein subunits. Despite growing success in worldwide vaccination efforts, additional capabilities may be needed in the future to address issues such as stability and storage requirements, need for vaccine boosters, desirability of different routes of administration, and emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants such as the Delta variant.

A bacterial extracellular vesicle-based intranasal vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 protects against disease and elicits neutralizing antibodies to wild-type and Delta variants.

Several vaccines have been introduced to combat the coronavirus infectious disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Current SARS-CoV-2 vaccines include mRNA-containing lipid nanoparticles or adenoviral vectors that encode the SARS-CoV-2 Spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2, inactivated virus, or protein subunits. Despite growing success in worldwide vaccination efforts, additional capabilities may be needed in the future to address issues such as stability and storage requirements, need for vaccine boosters, desirability of different routes of administration, and emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants such as the Delta variant.

Overproducing the BAM complex improves secretion of difficult-to-secrete recombinant autotransporter chimeras.

Monomeric autotransporters have been used extensively to transport recombinant proteins or protein domains to the cell surface of Gram-negative bacteria amongst others for antigen display. Genetic fusion of such antigens into autotransporters has yielded chimeras that can be used for vaccination purposes. However, not every fusion construct is transported efficiently across the cell envelope.

Exploring metal availability in the natural niche of to discover potential vaccine antigens.

Nasopharyngeal colonization by is a prerequisite for pneumococcal transmission and disease. Current vaccines protect only against disease and colonization caused by a limited number of serotypes, consequently allowing serotype replacement and transmission. Therefore, the development of a broadly protective vaccine against colonization, transmission and disease is desired but requires a better understanding of pneumococcal adaptation to its natural niche.

Combining Protein Ligation Systems to Expand the Functionality of Semi-Synthetic Outer Membrane Vesicle Nanoparticles.

Bacterial outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) attract increasing interest as immunostimulatory nanoparticles for the development of vaccines and therapeutic agents. We previously engineered the autotransporter protein Hemoglobin protease (Hbp) into a surface display carrier that can be expressed to high density on the surface of OMVs. Moreover, we implemented Tag-Catcher protein ligation technology, to obtain dense display of single heterologous antigens and nanobodies on the OMVs through coupling to the distal end of the Hbp passenger domain.

Mutagenesis-Based Characterization and Improvement of a Novel Inclusion Body Tag.

Whereas, bacterial inclusion bodies (IBs) for long were regarded as undesirable aggregates emerging during recombinant protein production, they currently receive attention as promising nanoparticulate biomaterials with diverse applications in biotechnology and biomedicine. We previously identified ssTorA, a signal sequence that normally directs protein export via the Tat pathway in , as a tag that induces the accumulation of fused proteins into IBs under overexpression conditions. Here, we used targeted mutagenesis to identify features and motifs being either critical or dispensable for IB formation.

Outer membrane vesicles engineered to express membrane-bound antigen program dendritic cells for cross-presentation to CD8 T cells.

Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) are vesicular nano-particles produced by Gram-negative bacteria that are recently being explored as vaccine vector. The fact that OMVs can be efficiently produced by a hypervesiculating Salmonella typhimurium strain, are packed with naturally-occurring adjuvants like lipopolysaccharides (LPS), and can be engineered to express any antigen of choice, makes them ideal candidates for vaccinology. However, it is unclear whether OMVs induce dendritic cell (DC)-mediated antigen-specific T cell responses and how immune activation is coordinated.

Inhibition of autotransporter biogenesis by small molecules.

Disarming pathogens by targeting virulence factors is a promising alternative to classic antibiotics. Many virulence factors in Gram-negative bacteria are secreted via the autotransporter (AT) pathway, also known as Type 5 secretion. These factors are secreted with the assistance of two membrane-based protein complexes: Sec and Bam.

On display: autotransporter secretion and application.

The classical monomeric autotransporters are ubiquitously used by Gram-negative bacteria to export virulence and colonization factors to their cell surface or into their surroundings. They are expressed as monomeric proteins that pass the inner and outer membrane in two consecutive steps facilitated by the Sec translocon and the Bam complex, respectively. In this mini-review we discuss how autotransporters translocate their secreted functional domains across the outer membrane.

Display of Recombinant Proteins on Bacterial Outer Membrane Vesicles by Using Protein Ligation.

The virulence factor hemoglobin protease (Hbp) has been engineered into a surface display system that can be expressed to high density on live and serovar Typhimurium cells or derived outer membrane vesicles (OMVs). Multiple antigenic sequences can be genetically fused into the Hbp core structure for optimal exposure to the immune system. Although the Hbp display platform is relatively tolerant, increasing the number, size, and complexity of integrated sequences generally lowers the expression of the fused constructs and limits the density of display.

Comparing autotransporter β-domain configurations for their capacity to secrete heterologous proteins to the cell surface.

Monomeric autotransporters have been extensively used for export of recombinant proteins to the cell surface of Gram-negative bacteria. A bottleneck in the biosynthesis of such constructs is the passage of the outer membrane, which is facilitated by the β-domain at the C terminus of an autotransporter in conjunction with the Bam complex in the outer membrane. We have evaluated eight β-domain constructs for their capacity to secrete fused proteins to the cell surface.

Th17-Mediated Cross Protection against Pneumococcal Carriage by Vaccination with a Variable Antigen.

Serotype-specific protection against is an important limitation of the current polysaccharide-based vaccines. To prevent serotype replacement, reduce transmission, and limit the emergence of new variants, it is essential to induce broad protection and restrict pneumococcal colonization. In this study, we used a prototype vaccine formulation consisting of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-detoxified outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) from serovar Typhimurium displaying the variable N terminus of PspA (α1α2) for intranasal vaccination, which induced strong Th17 immunity associated with a substantial reduction of pneumococcal colonization.

Application of an E. coli signal sequence as a versatile inclusion body tag.

Background: Heterologous protein production in Escherichia coli often suffers from bottlenecks such as proteolytic degradation, complex purification procedures and toxicity towards the expression host. Production of proteins in an insoluble form in inclusion bodies (IBs) can alleviate these problems. Unfortunately, the propensity of heterologous proteins to form IBs is variable and difficult to predict.

Highly conserved nucleotide phosphatase essential for membrane lipid homeostasis in Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Proteins belonging to the DHH family, a member of the phosphoesterase superfamily, are produced by most bacterial species. While some of these proteins are well studied in Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli, their functions in Streptococcus pneumoniae remain unclear. Recently, the highly conserved DHH subfamily 1 protein PapP (SP1298) has been reported to play an important role in virulence.

Salmonella outer membrane vesicles displaying high densities of pneumococcal antigen at the surface offer protection against colonization.

Bacterial outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) are attractive vaccine formulations because they have intrinsic immunostimulatory properties. In principle, heterologous antigens incorporated into OMVs will elicit specific immune responses, especially if presented at the vesicle surface and thus optimally exposed to the immune system. In this study, we explored the feasibility of our recently developed autotransporter Hbp platform, designed to efficiently and simultaneously display multiple antigens at the surface of bacterial OMVs, for vaccine development.

An autotransporter display platform for the development of multivalent recombinant bacterial vector vaccines.

Background: The Autotransporter pathway, ubiquitous in Gram-negative bacteria, allows the efficient secretion of large passenger proteins via a relatively simple mechanism. Capitalizing on its crystal structure, we have engineered the Escherichia coli autotransporter Hemoglobin protease (Hbp) into a versatile platform for secretion and surface display of multiple heterologous proteins in one carrier molecule.

Results: As proof-of-concept, we demonstrate efficient secretion and high-density display of the sizeable Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigens ESAT6, Ag85B and Rv2660c in E.

Autotransporter-based antigen display in bacterial ghosts.

Bacterial ghosts are empty cell envelopes of Gram-negative bacteria that can be used as vehicles for antigen delivery. Ghosts are generated by releasing the bacterial cytoplasmic contents through a channel in the cell envelope that is created by the controlled production of the bacteriophage ϕX174 lysis protein E. While ghosts possess all the immunostimulatory surface properties of the original host strain, they do not pose any of the infectious threats associated with live vaccines.

Decoration of outer membrane vesicles with multiple antigens by using an autotransporter approach.

Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) are spherical nanoparticles that naturally shed from Gram-negative bacteria. They are rich in immunostimulatory proteins and lipopolysaccharide but do not replicate, which increases their safety profile and renders them attractive vaccine vectors. By packaging foreign polypeptides in OMVs, specific immune responses can be raised toward heterologous antigens in the context of an intrinsic adjuvant.

Type V secretion: from biogenesis to biotechnology.

The two membranes of Gram-negative bacteria contain protein machines that have a general function in their assembly. To interact with the extra-cellular milieu, Gram-negatives target proteins to their cell surface and beyond. Many specialized secretion systems have evolved with dedicated translocation machines that either span the entire cell envelope or localize to the outer membrane.

A structurally informed autotransporter platform for efficient heterologous protein secretion and display.

Background: The self-sufficient autotransporter (AT) pathway, ubiquitous in Gram-negative bacteria, combines a relatively simple protein secretion mechanism with a high transport capacity. ATs consist of a secreted passenger domain and a β-domain that facilitates transfer of the passenger across the cell-envelope. They have a great potential for the extracellular expression of recombinant proteins but their exploitation has suffered from the limited structural knowledge of carrier ATs.