Antigenic determinants of Staphylococcus aureus type 5 and type 8 capsular polysaccharide vaccines.

Bacterial capsular polysaccharides (CP) are carbohydrate polymers comprised of repeating saccharide units. Several of these CP have side chains attached to their backbone structures. The side chains may include O-acetyl, phosphate, sialic acid, and other moieties. Those moieties represent the immunodominant epitopes and the most functional ones. The clinically significant Staphylococcus aureus type 5 CP (CP 5) and type 8 CP (CP 8) are comprised of a trisaccharide repeat unit with one O-acetyl group attached to each repeat unit. The immunogenicity of these CP and the functionality of antibodies to the backbone and the O-acetyl moieties were investigated. Immunization with the native CP conjugates (CP with 75% O-acetylation) elicited a high proportion of antibodies directed against the O-acetyl moiety. Nonetheless, all of the vaccinees produced antibodies to the backbone moieties as well. Conjugate vaccines made of de-O-acetylated CP elicited backbone antibodies only. Antibodies to both backbone and O-acetyl groups were found to be opsonic against S. aureus strains which varied in their O-acetyl content. Absorption studies with O-acetylated and de-O-acetylated CP showed that (i) native CP conjugates generated antibodies to both backbone and O-acetyl groups and (ii) O-acetylated isolates were opsonized by both populations of antibodies while the non-O-acetylated strains were predominantly opsonized by the backbone antibodies. These results suggest that S. aureus CP conjugate vaccines elicit multiple populations of antibodies with diverse specificities. Moreover, the antibodies of different specificities (backbone or O-acetyl) are all functional and efficient against the variations in bacterial CP that may occur among clinically significant S. aureus pathogenic isolates.