Pan-genome reverse vaccinology of Staphylococcus aureus bovine mastitis

金黄色葡萄球菌是人类医院和社区相关感染的重要原因。此外，金黄色葡萄球菌会引起牛乳房炎(乳房感染)等具有重要经济意义的牲畜感染，这是全球奶业的主要经济负担，也是一个重要的动物福利问题。牛乳房炎通常很难用抗生素治疗，部分原因是金黄色葡萄球菌能够进入细胞内，而且抗生素耐药性是一个日益严重的问题。因此，一种预防金黄色葡萄球菌乳房炎的疫苗是非常可取的。最近，病原菌的整个遗传密码的可获得性已被用于识别预计可诱导保护性免疫反应的抗原。这样的研究已经为几种重要的人类病原体带来了有希望的疫苗。在这里，我们建议对引起牛乳房炎的金黄色葡萄球菌的所有亚型采用基于遗传密码的类似方法。这将使我们能够识别由所有菌株制造的抗原，这些抗原诱导抗体促进细菌杀灭和破坏宿主与病原体的相互作用。重要的是，将在奶牛身上检测诱导保护性免疫的能力。总体而言，这项研究将使人们更好地了解金黄色葡萄球菌是如何引起奶牛乳房炎的，以及哪些抗原可以作为疫苗用于预防疾病、提高生产力和减少动物的痛苦。

Staphylococcus aureus is an important cause of hospital- and community-associated infections of humans. In addition, S. aureus causes economically-important infections of livestock such as bovine mastitis (infection of the udder) which is a major economic burden on the global dairy industry and an important animal welfare issue. Bovine mastitis is typically difficult to treat with antibiotics due in part to the capacity of S. aureus to become intracellular, and antibiotic-resistance is an increasing problem. Accordingly, a vaccine which protects against S. aureus mastitis would be highly desirable. Recently, the availability of the entire genetic code for pathogenic bacteria has been has been useful for identification of antigens predicted to induce a protective immune response. Such studies have resulting in promising vaccines for several important human pathogens. Here, we propose to utilise a similar approach based on the genetic code for all of the subtypes of S. aureus which cause bovine mastitis. This will allow us to identify antigens which are made by all strains, and which induce antibodies which promote bacterial killing and disrupt host-pathogen interactions. Importantly, the capacity to induce protective immunity will be examined in dairy cows. Overall, the study will result in a better understanding of how S. aureus causes bovine mastitis and which antigens may be useful as a vaccine to prevent disease, increase productivity and reduce animal suffering.