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Pertussis Vaccination: A Case Study

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1.2 Pertussis vaccination
The causative agent of pertussis is Bordetella pertussis, a Gram–negative, aerobic coccobacillus that is an obligate human pathogen (7). The introduction of whole cell vaccination saw a dramatic reduction in pertussis incidence in the USA dropping from (corrected rate) 872 cases per 100,000 population in the pre vaccine era to <10 per 100,000 population 20 years following vaccine introduction (6). However the range of local and systemic effects in addition to false reports linking the vaccine to fatal childhood conditions lead to a reduction in vaccine compliance, for example in Japan to as low as 10% (2). This prompted the development of a safer, acellular equivalent, which today contains 3 – 5 antigens which are important, immunogenic virulence factors of the bacterium.

Pertussis toxin (PT) is an …show more content…

coli cells were transformed using chemical method and were then spread-plated onto LB plates supplemented with Kanamycin 30 μg/mL (Sigma), Isopropyl β-D-1thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) 0.5 mM (Progene) and 5-bromo-40chloro-3-indolyl-β-D-galactopyranoside (X-Gal) 80 μg/mL (Promega) and incubated overnight at 37°C.

2.4 Plasmid extraction and digestion
Plasmids were extracted using the three-step alkaline lysis procedure as outlined by Kado and Liu, 1999. The extracted plasmids were then digested using 1 U of each XhoI and XbaI, respectively according to manufacturer’s (New England Biolabs) recommendation and ran on a 1% Tris Acetate EDTA (TAE) agarose gel. 1 μl of BioLine Hyperladder I was used as the DNA marker.
2.5 Assessment of expression of target protein
A single colony of freshly grown E. coli was cultured overnight in 2YT before an amount moved to fresh 2YT to generate 20 mL at OD 0.5. A 1 mL 0 hr non-induced sample was taken before the addition of 1mM IPTG. 1 mL samples of OD 0.5 were then taken at (post–induction) 1 hr, 2 hr and 3 hr time-points for analysis through Western Blot.

2.6 Western

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