Protein-Specific Analysis of Humoral Immune Responses in a Clinical Trial for Vaccines against Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia

Specific humoral immune responses in a clinical trial on cattle for vaccines against contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) were investigated. The trial included a subunit vaccine consisting of five recombinant putative variable surface proteins of the infectious agent Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. mycoides small colony type (M. mycoides SC) compared to the currently approved attenuated vaccine strain T1/44 and untreated controls. Humoral immune responses to 65 individual recombinant surface proteins of M. mycoides SC were monitored by a recently developed bead-based array assay. Responses to the subunit vaccine components were found to be weak. Animals vaccinated with this vaccine were not protected and had CBPP lesions similar to those of the untreated controls. In correlating protein-specific humoral responses to T1/44-induced immunity, five proteins associated with a protective immune response were identified by statistical evaluation, namely, MSC_1046 (LppQ), MSC_0271, MSC_0136, MSC_0079, and MSC_0431. These five proteins may be important candidates in the development of a novel subunit vaccine against CBPP.