Production and immunogenicity analysis of conformation-stable fragment-C mutant of tetanus toxin

Abstract:

Tetanus is caused by tetanus toxin synthesized by Clostridium tetani. Fragment C (Hc), the 50 kDa carboxy-terminal portion of tetanus toxin, is nontoxic but has receptor protein binding activities, which has been evaluated as a potential new recombinant subunit vaccine to replace the traditional formaldehyde inactivated toxoid vaccine. It is easy for wild Hc (HcW) to form inter- and intra-molecular disulfide bonds and the different conformations changes unstably, which brings difficulties for vaccine production technology. In our study, the Cys 869 of HcW was mutated to Ala and the conformation-stable fragment-C mutant of tetanus toxin (HcM) was constructed. The HcM was expressed, fermented and purified and its stability, receptor binding and immunogenicity were evaluated. The result showed that the HcM got high-level expression and was purified to >95% of purity. The purified HcM was conformation-stable at different temperature for different time and kept the binding activities with one of its receptor GT1b. Mice given three vaccinations by HcM developed a protective immune response and were 100% protected against an intraperitoneal administration of 1×10³ 50% lethal doses (LD₅₀s) of tetanus neurotoxin. All the results showed that the conformation-stable HcM had potent immunogenicity as a recombinant tetanus vaccine candidate with simple production process and similar immunogenicity with HcW. Whether for routine tetanus therapy or for countries to respond to unexpected events (war, earthquake or other disaster), it is of great significance.