MUTANTS OF THE ESCHERICHIA-COLI HEAT-LABILE ENTEROTOXIN WITH REDUCED ADP-RIBOSYLATION ACTIVITY OR NO ACTIVITY RETAIN THE IMMUNOGENIC PROPERTIES OF THE NATIVE HOLOTOXIN
L. Dehaan et al., MUTANTS OF THE ESCHERICHIA-COLI HEAT-LABILE ENTEROTOXIN WITH REDUCED ADP-RIBOSYLATION ACTIVITY OR NO ACTIVITY RETAIN THE IMMUNOGENIC PROPERTIES OF THE NATIVE HOLOTOXIN, Infection and immunity, 64(12), 1996, pp. 5413-5416
The Escherichia coli heat-labile enterotoxin (LT) is a potent inducer
of mucosal immune responses. In a previous study (L. DeHaan, W. R. Ver
weij, M. Holtrop, E. Agsteribbe, and J. Wilschut, Vaccine 14:620-626,
1996), we have shown that efficient induction of an LTB-specific mucos
al immune response by LT requires the presence of the LTA chain, sugge
sting a possible role of the enzymatic activity of LTA in the inductio
n of these responses. In the present study, we generated LT mutants,vi
th altered ADP-ribosylation activities and evaluated their immunogenic
ity upon intranasal administration to mice. The results demonstrate th
at the mucosal immunogenicity of LT is not dependent on its ADP-ribosy
lation activity.