Analysis of T-Cell Immune Response and Cross-Immunogenicity of Bordetella pertussis Epitopes

Whooping cough is a serious illness affecting young children. There are two main types of vaccines for whooping cough: cellular and acellular. We focused on studying the immune response to Bordetella pertussis based on the type of vaccination to uncover factors that affect vaccine effectiveness. It is worth noting that the immune response to Bordetella pertussis depends on many factors. In this study, we examine the role of the systemic T cell response. It was found that memory T cells react to components of the pertussis bacterium, and the strength of this response is independent of the vaccination type. In most donors, the T cell response to the inactivated bacterium was more robust than to gd15PtxS1 (genetically detoxified S1 subunit of pertussis toxin), a key ingredient in acellular vaccines. This indicates the existence of dominant epitopes beyond PT that elicit an immune response. Additionally, a bioinformatics analysis was conducted on the epitopes of various B. pertussis proteins, predicting their dominance based on HLA alleles and assessing the potential for cross-reactive T cell responses to other Bordetella species and human microbiota. These findings could help in the development of new vaccines against B. pertussis or in modifying existing vaccines to improve their efficacy and minimize side effects. These results may help in the development of new vaccines against B. pertussis or in the modification of vaccines to their efficacy and minimize side effects.