Defining the Host Protective Antigens Secreted by the Murine Whipworm, Trichuris Muris
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Defining the host protective antigens secreted by the murine whipworm, Trichuris muris A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health 2017 Rebecca K Shears School of Biological Sciences Division of Infection, Immunity and Respiratory Medicine Table of contents List of Figures ........................................................................................................ 5 List of Tables .......................................................................................................... 8 Abbreviations ....................................................................................................... 10 Abstract ................................................................................................................ 12 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................. 13 Declaration ........................................................................................................... 14 Copyright statement ............................................................................................ 14 Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................... 15 1.1 Gastrointestinal nematodes: their prevalence, disease burden and the need for prophylactic vaccines ........................................................... 16 1.2 T. muris as a model for T. trichiura ................................................... 18 1.2.1 The life cycle of T. muris .................................................................. 18 1.2.2 Immune response during acute and chronic T. muris infection ....... 20 1.2.3 Mechanisms of T. muris expulsion .................................................. 23 1.2.3.1 Mucus production and other goblet cell secretions .................... 26 1.2.3.2 Increased rate of epithelial cell turnover ..................................... 28 1.2.3.3 Intestinal muscle hyper-contractility ........................................... 29 1.2.3.4 Mast cells and IgE production .................................................... 30 1.2.3.5 IgG antibody production and B cells ........................................... 30 1.2.3.6 Innate lymphoid cells and other early sources of Th2 cytokines 31 1.2.3.7 Regulation of the immune response during T. muris infection .... 32 1.3 Clinical and pre-clinical helminth vaccine candidates .................... 33 1.3.1 Hookworm vaccine candidates ........................................................ 33 1.3.2 Pre-clinical Ascaris vaccine candidates ........................................... 35 1.3.3 Experimental Trichuris vaccines ...................................................... 35 1.3.4 Schistosome vaccines ..................................................................... 39 1.3.5 Cestode vaccine candidates ............................................................ 40 1.3.6 The role of adjuvants in vaccines .................................................... 40 1.4 Extracellular vesicles as a source of antigenic material ................. 43 1.4.1 Exosome biogenesis and isolation from biological samples ............ 43 1.4.2 Exosome release by parasitic helminths ......................................... 45 1.5 Aims and objectives ........................................................................... 48 Chapter 2: Materials and methods ..................................................................... 49 2.1 Maintenance of animals ...................................................................... 50 2.2 Maintenance of parasites, ELV removal and preparation of adult ES 50 2.3 Preparation of larval ES ...................................................................... 51 2.4 Egg infectivity and dosage ................................................................. 52 2.5 Quantification of worm burdens ........................................................ 52 2.6 Collection of sera ................................................................................ 53 2.7 Anti-parasite IgG1 and IgG2a ELISAs ............................................... 53 2.8 Lymphocyte re-stimulation assay ..................................................... 53 2.8.1 Measuring cytokine production in cell supernatants ........................ 54 2.9 Fractionation of adult ES .................................................................... 56 2 2.9.1 Fractionation of adult ES by gel filtration chromatography .............. 56 2.9.2 Fractionation of adult ES and pool 3 by anion exchange and gel filtration chromatography ........................................................................... 57 2.10 SDS-PAGE ........................................................................................... 57 2.10.1 Coomassie blue staining ................................................................ 58 2.10.2 Silver staining of SDS-PAGE gels ................................................. 58 2.11 Assessing protein concentration of samples ................................... 58 2.12 Western blotting .................................................................................. 58 2.12.1 Western blotting using serum from T. muris infected mice ............ 59 2.12.2 Western blotting to detect His-tagged recombinant proteins ......... 59 2.13 Mass spectrometry and proteomic analysis of ES components .... 60 2.13.1 Mass spectrometry analysis of T. muris ELVs ............................... 61 2.14 Vaccination studies ............................................................................ 62 2.14.1 Proteinase K treatment of ES and subsequent vaccination ........... 63 2.14.2 Serum transfer from vaccinated to unvaccinated mice .................. 63 2.14.3 ELV vaccination studies................................................................. 64 2.15 DNA synthesis, transfections and collection of recombinant proteins ........................................................................................................ 65 2.16 Purification of recombinant proteins ................................................ 66 2.17 TEM analysis of ELV samples ............................................................ 67 2.18 DLS of ELVs ......................................................................................... 67 2.19 ELV fusion assay ................................................................................ 68 2.20 Graphing and statistical analysis ...................................................... 68 Chapter 3: Defining the host protective components within the soluble portion of T. muris ES ......................................................................................... 70 3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................... 71 3.2 Preparation of T. muris ES for fractionation using gel filtration chromatography .......................................................................................... 73 3.2.3 Investigating the suitability of gel filtration media to fractionate ES into smaller sub-groups.............................................................................. 74 3.2.2 Division of ES into four sub-groups using Superose 12 gel filtration media ......................................................................................................... 76 3.2.3 Investigating the cellular immune response to pools 2-4 ................. 78 3.2.4 Assessment of anti-parasite IgG serum antibody response during acute T. muris infection .............................................................................. 80 3.3 Vaccination with pools 2 to 4 stimulates protective immunity ....... 82 3.3.1 Assessment of antibody response following vaccination with pools 2 to 4 and subsequent infection .................................................................... 84 3.4 Vaccination with ES induces long-lasting protection against a subsequent low dose infection .................................................................. 89 3.4.1 Assessment of antibody response following long-term vaccination and subsequent infection .................................................................................. 90 3.5 Proteinase K degradation of ES abrogates its protective properties …………………………………………………………………………………94 3.6 Transfer of serum from ES vaccinated mice does not confer resistance to unvaccinated mice ............................................................... 95 3.7 Fractionation of ES by anion exchange chromatography ............... 97 3.8 Fractionation of pool 3 by anion exchange chromatography ......... 99 3.9 Vaccination with L2 ES induces protective immunity ................... 101 3 3.10 Evaluation of the AKR mouse model for vaccination studies ....... 104 3.11 Discussion ......................................................................................... 105 Chapter 4: Identification of immunogenic candidates within T. muris ES ………………………………………………………………………………………..112 4.1 Chapter introduction ......................................................................... 113 4.2 Identification of immunogenic candidates using a size exclusion chromatography and proteomics approach ........................................... 114 4.2.1 Fractionating ES using Superose 12 gel filtration media ............... 114 4.2.2 Fractionation of pool 3 using Superdex 75 gel filtration media ...... 122 4.3 Identification and synthesis of potential