Antibody isotyping and cytokine profiling in natural cases of Burkholderia mallei infection (glanders) in equines.

OBJECTIVES

Immunological aspects of B. mallei infection were rarely studied in natural cases of equines. The present study was conducted to determine IgG, IgM, IgA and IgG (T) titre against recombinant Hcp1, TssA and TssB proteins and PilA-Hcp1-TssN-BipD and BpaB-BpaC- BMAA0553 chimeras and cytokine responses in glanders affected equine serum.

METHODS

The study was conducted on serum samples collected from 151 glanders positive equines which include horses (n = 134), mules (n = 16), and donkeys (n = 01). The IgM, IgG, IgA and IgG (T) titre were determined against recombinant antigens by indirect ELISA and interleukin(IL)-1β, IL-17, IL-6, tumor necrosis factor alpha(TNF-α), monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1) and interferon gamma (IFN-γ) responses were measured by commercial ELISA kits.

RESULTS

The study showed that glanders affected equines elicited strong antibody response against Hcp1, moderate responses against TssA and TssB, and weak responses against two chimeras. Among the cytokines, IL-1β, MCP-1, IL-17 and IL-6 concentration were significantly higher in glanders affected equine serum.

CONCLUSION

We found that IgG antibody titre was higher than IgM, IgG (T) and IgA isotypes and Hcp1 was most predominant antibody inducers in comparison to TssA, TssB, PilA-Hcp1-TssN-BipD and BpaB-BpaC-T2SS proteins. The elevated level of IL-1β, MCP-1, IL-17, IL-6, IFN-γ and TNF-α observed in this study support the important role of this cytokines for augmenting cellular defence by recruitment of macrophages, neutrophil and dendritic cells against B. mallei infection. Further studies should be conducted to determine memory cell responses in natural cases of equine glanders using recombinant B. mallei proteins for identifying well-characterized immuno-protective vaccine candidates.