Lj. Gansheroff et al., Decreased adherence of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli to HEp-2 cells in the presence of antibodies that recognize the C-terminal region of intimin, INFEC IMMUN, 67(12), 1999, pp. 6409-6417
Antiserum raised against intimin from enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (E
HEC) O157:H7 strain 86-24 has been shown previously by our laboratory to in
hibit adherence of this strain to HEp-2 cells. In the present study, we sou
ght to identify the region(s) of intimin important for the effect of anti-i
ntimin antisera on EHEC adherence and to determine whether antisera raised
against intimin from an O157:H7 strain could reduce adherence of other stra
ins. Compared to preimmune serum controls, polyclonal sera raised against t
he histidine-tagged intimin protein RIHisEae (intimin(O157)) or against His
-tagged C-terminal fragments of intimin from strain 86-24 reduced adherence
of this strain. Furthermore, an antibody: fraction purified from the anti-
RIHisEae serum that contained antibodies to the C-terminal third of intimin
, the putative receptor-binding domain, also reduced adherence of strain 86
-24, but a purified fraction containing antibodies to the N-terminal two-th
irds of intimin did not inhibit adherence. The polyclonal anti-intimin(O157
) serum raised against RIHisEae inhibited, to different degrees, the adhere
nce of another O157:H7 strain, an EHEC O55:H7 strain, one of two independen
t EHEC O111:NM isolates tested, and one of two EHEC O26:H11 strains tested.
Adherence of the other O26:H11 and O111:NM strains and an EPEC O127:H6 str
ain was not reduced. Finally, immunoblot analysis indicated a correlation b
etween the antigenic divergence in the C-terminal third of intimins from di
fferent strains and the capacity of anti-intimin(O157) antiserum to reduce
adherence of heterologous strains. Taken together, these data suggest that
intimin(O157) could be used as an immunogen to elicit adherence-blocking an
tibodies against O157:H7 strains and closely-related EHEC.