ArticleVaccine2019
Non-pathogenic Borrelia burgdorferi expressing Treponema pallidum TprK and Tp0435 antigens as a novel approach to evaluate syphilis vaccine candidates.
Article in Vaccine, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 33 citations in OpenAlex.
- An mRNA-LNP vaccine expressing TP0435 provides protective immunity in rabbits againstEmerging microbes & infections · 2026Article
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- Biologic drug development for treatment and prevention of sexually transmitted infections.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2025Review
- B-Cell Epitope Mapping of theDiagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Treponema denticola major surface protein (Msp): a key player in periodontal pathogenicity and immune evasion.Archives of microbiology · 2025Review
- Participants inFrontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Hitchhiker's Guide toJournal of bacteriology · 2024Review
- Proteomic analysis of theFrontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- Comprehensive Overview ofCurrent protein & peptide science · 2024Review
- Resurgence of syphilis: focusing on emerging clinical strategies and preclinical models.Journal of translational medicine · 2023Review
- Deep proteome coverage advances knowledge of Treponema pallidum protein expression profiles during infection.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Insights into the protective immune response by immunization with full-length recombinant TprK protein: cellular and humoral responses.NPJ vaccines · 2023Article
- Advancements in the development of nucleic acid vaccines for syphilis prevention and control.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2023Review
- Immunization with Tp0954, an adhesin ofFrontiers in immunology · 2023Article
- Neurosyphilis: insights into its pathogenesis, susceptibility, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Review
- Syphilis vaccine: challenges, controversies and opportunities.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Review
- Strategies for successful designing of immunocontraceptive vaccines and recent updates in vaccine development against sexually transmitted infections - A review.Saudi journal of biological sciences · 2022Review
- Notes on syphilis vaccine development.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Review
- Full-length TprK of Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum in lipid nanodiscs is a monomeric porin.Enzyme and microbial technology · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSyphilis is resurgent in many developed countries and still prevalent in developing nations. Current and future control campaigns would benefit from the development of a vaccine, but although promising vaccine candidates were identified among the putative surface-exposed integral outer membrane proteins of the syphilis spirochete, immunization experiments in the rabbit model using recombinant antigens have failed to fully protect animals upon infectious challenge. We speculated that such recombinant immunogens, purified under denaturing conditions from Escherichia coli prior to immunization might not necessarily harbor their original structure, and hypothesized that enhanced protection would result from performing similar immunization/challenge experiments with native antigens.
methodsTo test our hypothesis, we engineered non-infectious Borrelia burgdorferi strains to express the tp0897 (tprK) and tp0435 genes of Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum and immunized two groups of rabbits by injecting recombinant strains intramuscularly with no adjuvant. TprK is a putative integral outer membrane protein of the syphilis agent, while tp0435 encodes the highly immunogenic T. pallidum 17-kDa lipoprotein, a periplasmic antigen that was also shown on the pathogen surface. Following development of a specific host immune response to these antigens as the result of immunization, animals were challenged by intradermal inoculation of T. pallidum. Cutaneous lesion development was monitored and treponemal burden within lesions were assessed by dark-field microscopy and RT-qPCR, in comparison to control rabbits.
resultsPartial protection was observed in rabbits immunized with B. burgdorferi expressing TprK while immunity to Tp0435 was not protective. Analysis of the humoral response to TprK antigen suggested reactivity to conformational epitopes.
conclusionsImmunization with native antigens might not be sufficient to obtain complete protection to infection. Nonetheless we showed that non-infectious B. burgdorferi can be an effective carrier to deliver and elicit a specific host response to T. pallidum antigens to assess the efficacy of syphilis vaccine candidates.
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