Skip to main content
Dryad

Data from: Genome-wide epitope mapping reveals significant diversity in antibody responses to Coxiella burnetii vaccination and infection

Data files

Apr 03, 2023 version files 322.78 MB

Abstract

Coxiella burnetii is an important zoonotic bacterial pathogen of global importance, causing the disease Q fever in a wide range of animal hosts. Ruminant livestock, in particular sheep and goats, are considered the main reservoir of infection. Vaccination is a key control measure and two commercial vaccines based on formalin-inactivated C. burnetii bacterins are currently available. However, their deployment is limited due to significant reactogenicity in individuals previously sensitized to C. burnetii antigens. Furthermore, these vaccines interfere with available serodiagnostic tests which are also based on C. burnetii bacterin preparations. Subunit vaccines based on recombinant proteins offer significant advantages, as they can be designed to reduce reactogenicity and can be co-designed with defined antigen serodiagnostic tests to allow discrimination between vaccinated and infected individuals. This study aimed to investigate the diversity of antibody responses to C. burnetii vaccination and/or infection in cattle, goats, humans, and sheep through genome-wide linear epitope mapping to identify candidate vaccine and diagnostic antigens within the predicted bacterial proteome. Using high-density peptide microarrays, we analyzed the seroreactivity in 156 serum samples from vaccinated and infected individuals to peptides derived from 2,092 ORFs in the C. burnetii genome. We found significant diversity in the antibody responses within and between species and across different C. burnetii exposure statuses. However, C. burnetii exposure did result in more uniform seroreactivity across species. Through the implementation of three different vaccine candidate methods, we identified 493 candidate protein antigens for protein subunit vaccine design or serodiagnostic, out of which 65 have been previously described. This is the first study to investigate seroreactivity against the entire C. burnetii genome presented as overlapping linear peptides and provides the basis for selection of antigen targets for next generation Q fever vaccines and diagnostic tests.