Link to Pubmed [PMID] – 25297678
Arch. Immunol. Ther. Exp. (Warsz.) 2015 Apr;63(2):155-60
The goal of our study was to compare the elimination of Bordetella pertussis clinical isolates that differ according to pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), serotypes and genes encoding virulence factors from the lungs of naïve mice or mice immunized with commercial diphtheria-tetanus-whole-cell pertussis vaccine used in Poland. When a mixture of four isolates, given in equal proportions and harboring different PFGE profiles, serotypes, and alleles encoding virulence factors, was used to infect non-immunized mice, a single isolate, characterized by PFGE type IVγ, Fim2 phenotype and ptxA1-prn2-tcfA2-fim2-1-ptxP1-ptxC1-fim3-1 alleles, was found to be significantly predominant compared to the others. This PFGE profile is commonly found in B. pertussis isolates circulating in some European countries since the late 1990s, confirming its high fitness. The Polish commercial whole-cell pertussis vaccine induced an immunity effective at eliminating the B. pertussis isolates from the lungs. However, the elimination of the isolate harboring PFGE type C profile, Fim2,3 phenotype and ptxA1-prn1-tcfA2-fim2-1-ptxP1-ptxC1-fim3-1 alleles was delayed as compared to the others, suggesting phenotypic differences with the other isolates and vaccine strains. Nevertheless, the same isolate, when challenged into mice in the defined mixture of strains, lost the competition with the others, as measured by lung colonization efficiency. This PFGE profile represents 15 % of the isolates circulating in Poland between 2001 and 2012.