The early humoral immune response to Bacillus anthracis toxins in patients infected with cutaneous anthrax

Brenneman, Karen E., Doganay, Mehmet, Akmal, Arya, Goldman, Stanley, Galloway, Darrell R., Mateczun, Alfred J., Cross, Alan S. and Baillie, Les ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8186-223X 2011. The early humoral immune response to Bacillus anthracis toxins in patients infected with cutaneous anthrax. FEMS Immunology & Medical Microbiology 62 (2) , pp. 164-172. 10.1111/j.1574-695X.2011.00800.x

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Abstract

Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of anthrax, produces a tripartite toxin composed of two enzymatically active subunits, lethal factor (LF) and edema factor (EF), which, when associated with a cell-binding component, protective antigen (PA), form lethal toxin and edema toxin, respectively. In this preliminary study, we characterized the toxin-specific antibody responses observed in 17 individuals infected with cutaneous anthrax. The majority of the toxin-specific antibody responses observed following infection were directed against LF, with immunoglobulin G (IgG) detected as early as 4 days after the onset of symptoms in contrast to the later and lower EF- and PA-specific IgG responses. Unlike the case with infection, the predominant toxin-specific antibody response of those immunized with the US anthrax vaccine absorbed and UK anthrax vaccine precipitated licensed anthrax vaccines was directed against PA. We observed that the LF-specific human antibodies were, like anti-PA antibodies, able to neutralize toxin activity, suggesting the possibility that they may contribute to protection. We conclude that an antibody response to LF might be a more sensitive diagnostic marker of anthrax than to PA. The ability of human LF-specific antibodies to neutralize toxin activity supports the possible inclusion of LF in future anthrax vaccines.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Pharmacy
Subjects:	Q Science > QR Microbiology > QR355 Virology R Medicine > RS Pharmacy and materia medica
Uncontrolled Keywords:	anthrax; lethal factor; edema factor; protective antigen
Publisher:	Wiley-Blackwell
ISSN:	0928-8244
Last Modified:	21 Oct 2022 09:31
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/36738

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