Protection conferred by a fully recombinant sub-unit vaccine against Yersinia pestis in male and female mice of four inbred strains

In this paper, we describe for the first time the use of a fully recombinan t sub-unit vaccine for plague. We have compared the protection afforded by the recombinant vaccine against Yersinia pestis in male and female mice of four inbred strains. We also determined the in vivo cellular memory and ant ibody response after one year. The recombinant vaccine was capable of induc ing protective immunity, against subcutaneous and aerosol challenge, in mic e from all four strains. Although, there was some breakthrough in the CBA m ales challenged with 10(7) median lethal dose (MLDs) the ether mice regardl ess of sex or strain were well protected even at this extreme challenge dos e. In both male and female mice, the specific IgG titres to both antigens p eaked at day 28 and 35 and in female mice these titres were maintained for >1 year. Crown Copyright (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All ri ghts reserved.