Escherichia coli heat-labile toxin subunit B fusions with Streptococcus sobrinus antigens expressed by Salmonella typhimurium oral vaccine strains: Importance of the linker for antigenicity and biological activities of the hybrid proteins

A set of vectors possessing the genes for aspartate semialdehyde dehydrogenase (asd) and the B subunit of the heat-labile enterotoxin of Escherichia coli (LT-B) has been developed. These vectors allow operon or gene fusions of foreign gene epitopes at the C-terminal end of LT-B. Two groups of vectors have been constructed with and without leader sequences to facilitate placing of the foreign antigen in different cell compartments. Two Streptococcus sobrinus genes coding for principal colonization factors, surface protein antigen A (SpaA), and dextranase (Dex), have been fused into the 3' end of the LT-B gene. Resulting protein fusions of ~120 to 130 kDa are extremely well recognized by antibodies directed against both SpaA and Dex as well as against LT-B domains and retain the enzymatic activity of dextranase and the biological activity of LT-B in that they bind to GM₁ gangliosides. Maximum antigenicity was obtained with the vector possessing an intervening linker of at least six amino acids with two proline residues. Some of the fusion proteins also exhibited another property of LT-B in that they were exported into the periplasm where they oligomerized. LT-B-SpaA and LT-B-Dex hybrid proteins are expressed stably and at a high level in avirulent Salmonella typhimurium vaccine strains which are being used to investigate their immunogenicity and types of induced immune responses. The fusion vectors will also be useful for production and purification of LT-B fusion antigens to be used and evaluated in other vaccine compositions.