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This project is collaborated between The Forsyth Institute (TFI) and The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), and is funded by National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)

Vaccine development

Although there are no vaccines for the prevention of P. gingivalis infections, several groups are investigating the potential of different cell surface components: fimbriae, cysteine protease-hemagglutinins, and capsular polysaccharides, to elicit protective antibody responses in animal models. Studies focusing on fimbriae-associated immunogens are the most advanced. Purified fimbriae, and the subunit protein fimbrillin, bind to saliva-coated hydroxyapatite (Lee et al., 1993) and mediate the binding of P. gingivalis to this substrate (Lee et al.,1992). Protection studies have shown that immunization with either fimbriae or fimbrillin reduced periodontal destruction in animals (Evans et al., 1992). Consistent with these data, animals infected with P. gingivalis fimA mutants also showed reduced periodontal bone loss (Malek et al., 1994).

Virulent, invasive strains of P. gingivalis are more resistant to PMN-mediated phagocytosis than non-invasive strains (Sundqvist et al., 1991) and capsular polysaccharide has been correlated with invasive infection (Reynolds et al., 1989; van Winkelhoff et al., 1993). In animals, protein (BSA)-conjugated polysaccharide elicited a strong IgM primary response, but only a weak IgG secondary response; however, after challenge with P. gingivalis the severity of infection was reduced (Schifferle et al., 1993). More recently, Genco et al., (1995a) showed that an O-side chain polysaccharide over-producting mutant was more resistant to phagocytosis than the parent strain.

Vaccines based on the cysteine protease-hemagglutinins are at earlier stages of development. Using the mouse model, Fletcher et al., (1995) showed that a prtH mutant of strain W83 was non-virulent compared to the parental strain, indicating that this protein was a suitable target. Also using hemagglutinins as immunogens, Dusek et al., (1993,1994,1995) are investigating the Salmonella typhimurium system for protein expression and antigen delivery in animal models.


This page is created and maintained by Drs. Margaret Duncan, Floyd Dewhirst, and Tsute Chen, Department of Molecular Genetics, The Forsyth Institute .

Last modified on 02/20/2002

Copyright 2000, 2001, 2002 by The Forsyth Institute