Whole genome analysis to detect potential vaccine-induced changes on Shigella sonnei genome. Issue 26 (12th June 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Behar, Adi; Fookes, Maria C; Goren, Sophy; Thomson, Nicholas R.; Cohen, Dani
• Is Part Of: Vaccine. Volume 33:Issue 26(2015)
• Page Start: 2978
• Page End: 2983
• Publication Date: 2015-06-12
• Subjects: Vaccines -- Periodicals; 615.372
• DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2015.04.074
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0264-410X

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="author" id="abs0005"> <title id="sect0005">Abstract</title> <sec> <p id="spar0005">Shigellosis or bacillary dysentery is endemic worldwide and is a significant cause of death in children less than five years of age in developing countries. There are no licensed <italic>Shigella</italic> vaccines and glycoconjugates are among the leading candidate vaccines against shigellosis today.</p> <p id="spar0010">We used whole genome sequence analysis (WGA) to find out whether immunization, with an investigational <italic>Shigella sonnei</italic> glycoconjugate, could induce selective pressure leading to changes in the genome of <italic>S. sonnei</italic>. An outbreak of culture-proven <italic>S. sonnei</italic> shigellosis which occurred immediately after vaccination in one of the cohorts of volunteers participating in a phase III trial of the vaccine in Israel created a unique condition in which the epidemic agent "co-existed" with the developing immune responses induced by the vaccine and natural infection among vaccinees who developed <italic>S. sonnei</italic> shigellosis. By comparing the whole genomes of <italic>S. sonnei</italic> isolated from vaccinees and from volunteers in the control group, we show at a very high sensitivity that a potent <italic>S. sonnei</italic> glycoconjugate that conferred 74% protective efficacy against the homologous disease did not induce changes in the genome of <italic>S. sonnei</italic> and in particular on the O-antigen gene cluster.</p> </sec> </abstract>