Induction of deletion mutation onompR gene ofSalmonella enterica serovar Typhi isolates from asymptomatic typhoid carriers to evolve attenuated strains for vaccine development

Objective:To develop attenuated strains ofSalmonella enterica serovar Typhi(S. typhi) for the candidate vaccine by osmolar stress.Methods:S. typhiSS3 andSS5 strains were isolated from asymptomatic typhoid carriers inNamakkal,TamilNadu,India.Both strains were grown inLB (LuriaBertani) medium supplemented with various concentration ofNaCl(0.1-0.7M) respectively. The effect of osmolar stress was determined at molecular level byPCR usingMGR06 andMGR 07 primers corresponding to ompR with chromosomalDNA of S. typhiSS3 andSS5 strains. Attenuation by osmolar stress results in deletion mutation of theS. typhi strains was determined by agglutination assays, precipitation method,SDSPAGE analysis and by animal models. Results:The799 bp amplifiedompRgene product from wild typeS. typhiSS3 andSS5 illustrate the presence of virulent gene.Interestingly, there was only a282 bp amplified product fromS. typhiSS3 andSS5 grown in the presence of0.5,0.6 and0.7MNaCl.This illustrates the occurrence of deletion mutation inompRgene at high concentration ofNaCl.Furthermore, both the wild-type and mutantS. typhi outer membraneSDS-PAGE profile reveals the differences in the expression ofompF,ompC andompA proteins.In mice, wild type and mutant strains lethal dose (LD50) were determined.The mice died within72 h when both the wild type strains were injected intraperitoneally with3 logCFU.mL-1.When the mice were injected with the mutants in same dosage, no clinical symptoms were observed; whereas the serum antibody titre was elicited within two weeks indicated that the mutants have the ability to induce protective humoral immune response.These results suggest thatS. typhiSS3 andSS5 may be used as good candidate strains for the development of live attenuated vaccine against salmonellosis.Conclusions:This study demonstrates that theS. typhistrains were attenuated and could be good vaccine candidates in future.