Development of Vaccine for Hansen's Disease-Targeting the M.leprae Molecular Mechanism for Entry into Nasal Mucosal Epithelial Cells

• Project/Area Number: 25670505
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Dermatology
• Research Institution: Kitasato University
• Principal Investigator: Fujimura Takao 北里大学, 医学部, 講師 (50209087)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): SATO Naoya 北里大学, 医学部, 助教 (50276119)
• Research Collaborator: DAHLAN Haslindah ; Viesta fadlitha beby ; IDRIS Irfan ; Fatulrachman
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2015)
• Budget Amount: ¥3,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥900,000); Fiscal Year 2015: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000); Fiscal Year 2014: ¥1,820,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥420,000); Fiscal Year 2013: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000)
• Keywords: らい菌 / ワクチン / 抗mec抗体 / mce蛋白 / らい菌侵入抑制 / 侵入蛋白 / 感染防御ワクチン / 抗mce抗体 / 高度免疫血清

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We aim at investigating the invasion suppressing effect of various antibodies targeted against different regions of the M. leprae’s peptide for the nasal mucosal membrane invasion. 316-532bp (106-177A.A.) are considered to be the invasion-active region. This region was further divided into four sub-regions: 106-129A.A., 130-151A.A., 152-162A.A., and 163-177A.A.. A hyperimmune antisera was prepared for each of these sub-regions. Recombinant E. coli expressing the entire region including 130-151 amino acids in the M. leprae mce1A locus, that is,106-177 amino acids, were used to observe any changes in the M. leprae’s ability to enter the nasal membrane cells, where changes were caused by the treatment with antibodies. The observation revealed that the hyperimmune antisera prepared using 106-129A.A. and 130-151A.A. as immunogen had a strong invasion suppression effect. The hyperimmune antisera prepared with 152-162A.A. as immunogen did not show any invasion suppression effect.

Research Products

• [Presentation] Unique regions in the Mycobacterium leprae Mce1A protein associated with the initial transmission of leprosy (2016)
  • Author(s): Viesta baby Fadlitha, Naoya Sato, Idris Irfan, Fatulrachman, Takao Fujimura, Hiroaki Takimoto
  • Organizer: The 89th Annual Meeting of the Japanese society of Bacteriology
  • Place of Presentation: 大阪国際交流センター、大阪市天王寺区
  • Year and Date: 2016-03-23
• [Presentation] The nasal epithelial cell invasion of Mycobacterium leprae may depend on unique amino acid redidues within the Mce1A protein (2014)
  • Author(s): Haslindah Dahlan , Naoya Sato, Viesta Fadlitha Beby, Hiroaki Takimoto, Takao Fujimura.
  • Organizer: 第43回日本免疫学会総会学術集会
  • Place of Presentation: 国立京都国際会館（京都府京都市）
  • Year and Date: 2014-12-10 – 2014-12-13