VIRUS LIKE PARTICLES AS CARRIERS FOR CARBOHYDRATE BASED ANTI-SALMONELLA VACCINES

Salmonella infections (salmonellosis) are a major public health problem throughout the world. In response to RFA-13-179, Indo-U.S. Vaccine Action Program Small Research Grant Program (R03), a collaborative team is formed between two glycoscience groups in the US and India to develop carbohydrate based anti-Salmonella vaccines. Instead of relying on isolating polysaccharides from the pathogenic bacteria, in aim 1, synthetic strategies will be developed to produce structure well defined Salmonella associated glycans from major pathogenic serovars. These glycans will be conjugated with a virus like particle, bacteriophage Q? via state of the art bioconjugation chemistry. In aim 2, the humoral immune responses against these glycoconjugates will be evaluated. As the virus like particle Q? can display the carbohydrate antigens in a highly organized manner and elicit powerful helper T cell activation, it is expected that Q? conjugates can significantly boost the IgG antibody responses against the Salmonella associate glycans and generate glycan specific immunological memory. The abilities of the vaccine constructs to protect against lethal Salmonella challenge will be established. This work can lead to an exciting new direction for anti-Salmonella vaccine development.