, 2005). This N-terminal domain was not selected

for the rTbpA fragment tested here because CTLA-4 antibody inhibitor an earlier report about gonococcal TbpA (Yost-Daljev & Cornelissen, 2004) showed that the most exposed fragments are located in intermediate domains, which therefore are more readily accessible to antibodies. According to the data gathered in our study, the intermediate domain of H. parasuis rTbpA might also represent an immunodominant region, as the rabbit antibodies raised against it developed high titers by ELISA and also reacted against TbpA from other Pasteurellaceae, such as A. pleuropneumoniae, revealing the high conservation of this protein, as reported in other species (González et al., 1995; Myers et al., 1998). In this respect, other porcine rTbps generated from A. pleuropneumoniae have developed a strong humoral immune response in experimental studies in pigs, being comparable to that induced by

natural infection (Rossi-Campos et al., 1992). On the other hand, the bactericidal activity revealed by any of the four sera developed clearly shows that our rTbpA fragment, about one-third of the full length of native TbpA, was Alectinib chemical structure sufficient for the induction of bactericidal antibodies against the homologous serovar of H. parasuis. In this sense, a hypothetical protection induced by this rTbpA fragment against H. parasuis infection might be due to complement-mediated lysis, and serum bactericidal activity might be an appropriate predictor of efficacy for a potential vaccine based on this recombinant protein fragment. Finally, electron microscopy confirmed that the native TbpA appears to be accessible

to antibodies at the cell surface, because the rabbit antibodies raised against this rTbpA fragment were able to bind specifically to H. parasuis. Protective responses against TbpA from other gram-negative organisms, such as Neisseria meningitidis (Ferreiros & Criado, 1994; West et al., 2001) the and A. pleuropneumoniae (Kim & Lee, 2006), have demonstrated the potential efficacy of this protein as a vaccine candidate. The production of a soluble and purified form of H. parasuis rTbpA fragment, which is likely to be surface accessible to antibodies, provides an opportunity to directly assess whether this antigen can serve as a good candidate to protect not only against serovar-specific H. parasuis but also against other serovars. In conclusion, this work reports for the first time the characterization of a rTbpA fragment from H. parasuis serovar 5, a highly virulent and one of the most prevalent serovars (Oliveira & Pijoan, 2004). Further studies are needed to demonstrate whether this 200-amino acid fragment could be used as an effective vaccine to prevent Glässer’s disease. This work was supported by grant AGL2008-00110/GAN from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. S.M. and R.F.