University System of Maryland

Sharon M Tennants

Myron M Levine

Raphael Simon

Longer chain antigenic O-polysaccharide chains for use as a hapten in conjugate vaccines can be produced in a controlled manner using recombinant Gram-negative bacteria that overexpress native or heterologous genes of the wzz family, for example wzzB. Bacteria expressing a chosen wzz gene have modified O-polysaccharide chain lengths, allowing the bacteria to produce lipopolysaccharides having the longer O-polysaccharides. The LPS produced by the bacteria can be hydrolyzed to form core-O-polysaccharide molecules that can be conjugated to a carrier molecule, for example flagellin, to produce a vaccine. The invention also provides recombinant bacteria producing the longer chain O-polysaccharides, the polysaccharide molecules, themselves, conjugated vaccines comprising the O-polysaccharides, pharmaceutical compositions and kits.

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Baltimore, MD, United States of America

Sharon M Tennants