Broad-Spectrum Vaccine Targeting PNAG
One of the challenges of vaccine development is the large serologic diversity of protective antigens. Most of the time, scientists have to turn to find conserved, but often suboptimal, antigens or epitopes as vaccines. Poly-N-acetyl glucosamine is a bacterial capsule polysaccharide that provides a potentially broad-spectrum target for vaccination. It is a conserved surface/capsular polysaccharide expressed by a large number of bacterial, fungal, and eukaryotic pathogens. Creative Biolabs provides conjugate vaccine development services using synthetic β-1-6-linked polymeric-N-acetyl glucosamine, offering highly effective countermeasures to reduce infection rates by several bacterial pathogens.
Polymeric-N-acetyl Glucosamine (PNAG)
Poly-N-acetyl glucosamine (PNAG) is a polymer of β-(1-6)-linked N-acetylglucosamine residues encoded by a conserved four-gene locus, which occurs relatively small amounts of deacetylation on 5-15% of monosaccharide residues. PNAG plays an essential role in the biofilm formation of different microbial species and is an important virulence factor for several pathogens. As a major component of bacterial biofilms, PNAG has also been reported to help bacteria escape the immune system, especially opsonophagocytic killing. It helps prevent host macrophages and other cells from engulfing the pathogens. Moreover, PNAG also protects bacteria from environmental stress.
It was found that by removing acetate to produce predominantly polymeric β-1-6 linked N-glucamine, or in a conjugate vaccine using synthetic β-1-6 linked glucosamine oligosaccharides, antibodies can be induced which are not only in combination with natural acetylated PNAG but also deposited complement on the surface of microorganisms. It mediates extracellular killing and shows protective efficacy against a variety of PNAG-producing pathogens in preclinical studies.
Fig.1 The structure of PNAG. (Skurnik D, et al. 2016)
Synthetic Oligosaccharide-Protein Conjugate Vaccines
As a vaccine company, Creative Biolabs has been trying to develop a vaccine against PNAG, which has great potential as a vaccine against a variety of pathogens and infections. Our modified synthetic vaccines target the natural PNAG expressed on the surface of a variety of bacterial, fungal, and parasitic pathogens that cause human and animal diseases, including but not limited to:
Table 1. Organisms identified as making PNAG.
| Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae | Escherichia coli | Acinetobacter baumannii | Staphylococcus aureus |
| Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans | Staphylococcus epidermidis | Vibrio parahemolyticus | Bacillus subtilis |
| Yersinia pestis | Bordetella pertussis | Klebsiella pneumoniae | B. parapertussis |
| Shigella spp. | B. bronchiseptica | Stenotrophomonas maltophilia | Burkholderia cepacia complex |
| Yersinia entercolitica | Enterobacter cloacae | Yersinia pseudotuberculosis | Bacteroides fragilis |
| Neisseria meningitides | Candida albicans | Streptococcus pyogenes | Streptococcus agalactiae |
| Hemophilus ducreyi | Hemophilus influenzae | Streptococcus pneumoniae | Listeria monocytogenes |
| Plasmodium spp. | Mycobacterium tuberculosis | Trichmonas vaginalis | Neisseria gonorrhoeae |
Since PNAG is produced by a wide variety of bacterial pathogens, the effective vaccine targeting PNAG developed by Creative Biolabs can significantly reduce the community-acquired and hospital-borne disease burden caused by PNAG-producing organisms. Creative Biolabs has always been serving vaccine researchers worldwide with its professionalism and service awareness. If you have any questions about vaccine research, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Reference
- Skurnik D, et al. The exceptionally broad-based potential of active and passive vaccination targeting the conserved microbial surface polysaccharide PNAG. Expert Rev Vaccines. 2016, 15(8): 1041-53.
All of our products can only be used for research purposes. These vaccine ingredients CANNOT be used directly on humans or animals.
