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Neonatal mouse immunity against group B streptococcal infection by maternal vaccination with recombinant anti-idiotypes

Nature Medicine volume 4, pages 705–709 (1998)Cite this article

Abstract

We investigated whether immunization with recombinant anti-idiotypic antibody fragments mimicking the conformation of the capsular antigen can protect against infection by group B streptococcus, an important neonatal pathogen. Single-chain fragment-variable anti-idiotypes competed with the type III carbohydrate for binding to type-specific antibodies and elicited, in mice, the production of protective immunoglobulins reacting against the type III polysaccharide. Moreover, maternal immunization with soluble or phage-displayed fragments protected neonatal mice against streptococcal infection. These data indicate that recombinant anti-idiotypic antibodies may be useful in developing protein images of relevant carbohydrate epitopes and, ultimately, in preventing infections by encapsulated bacteria.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Istituto di Microbiologia, Facultà di Medicina e Chirurgia, Università degli Studi di Parma, Via Gramsci 14, I-43100, Parma, Italy

    Walter Magliani, Luciano Polonelli, Stefania Conti & Antonella Salati

  2. Istituto di Microbiologia, Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia, Università degli Studi di Messina, Via Consolare Valeria 1, I-98125, Messina, Italy

    Pier Francesco Rocca, Vitaliano Cusumano, Giuseppe Mancuso & Giuseppe Teti

Authors
  1. Walter Magliani
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  2. Luciano Polonelli
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  3. Stefania Conti
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  4. Antonella Salati
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  6. Vitaliano Cusumano
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  7. Giuseppe Mancuso
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  8. Giuseppe Teti
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Magliani, W., Polonelli, L., Conti, S. et al. Neonatal mouse immunity against group B streptococcal infection by maternal vaccination with recombinant anti-idiotypes. Nat Med 4, 705–709 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0698-705

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