Protective humoral and CD4+ T cellular immune responses of Staphylococcus aureus vaccine MntC in a murine peritonitis model

Staphylococcus aureus can cause different types of diseases from mild skin infections to life-threatening sepsis worldwide. Owing to the emergence and transmission of multidrug-resistant strains, developing an impactful immunotherapy especially vaccine control approach against S . aureus infections is increasingly encouraged and supported. S . aureus manganese transport protein C (MntC), which is a highly-conserved cell surface protein, can elicit protective immunity against S . aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis . In this study, we evaluated the humoral immune response and CD4 + T cell-mediated immune responses in a mouse peritonitis model. The results showed that MntC-specific antibodies conferred an essential protection for mice to reduce invasion of S . aureus , which was corroborated via the opsonophagocytic killing assay and passive immunization experiment in mice, and moreover MntC-induced Th17 played a remarkable part in preventing S . aureus infection since the MntC-induced protective immunity decreased after neutralization of IL-17 by antibody in vivo and the Th17 adoptive transferred-mice could partly resist S . aureus challenge. In conclusion, we considered that the MntC-specific antibodies and MntC-specific Th17 cells play cooperative roles in the prevention of S . aureus infection.