Lactobacillus Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Lactobacillus, including details on probiotics, digestion, diet, health, lactobacillus acidophilus.

Lactobacilli expressing variable domain of llama heavy-chain antibody fragments (lactobodies) confer protection against rotavirus-induced diarrhea.

Pant N, Hultberg A, Zhao Y, Svensson L, Pan-Hammarstrom Q, Johansen K, Pouwels PH, Ruggeri FM, Hermans P, Frenken L, Boren T, Marcotte H, Hammarstrom L

Division of Clinical Immunology, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet at Karolinska Huddinge, Stockholm, Sweden.

BACKGROUND: Rotavirus-induced diarrhea poses a worldwide medical problem in causing substantial morbidity and mortality among children in developing countries. We therefore developed a system for passive immunotherapy in which recombinant lactobacilli constitutively express neutralizing variable domain of llama heavy-chain (VHH) antibody fragments against rotavirus. METHODS: VHH were expressed in Lactobacillus paracasei, in both secreted and cell surface-anchored forms. Electron microscopy was used to investigate the binding efficacy of VHH-expressing lactobacilli. To investigate the in vivo function of VHH-expressing lactobacilli, a mouse pup model of rotavirus infection was used. RESULTS: Efficient binding of the VHH antibody fragments to rotavirus was shown by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and scanning electron microscopy. VHH fragments expressed by lactobacilli conferred a significant reduction in infection in cell cultures. When administered orally, lactobacilli-producing surface-expressed VHH markedly shortened disease duration, severity, and viral load in a mouse model of rotavirus-induced diarrhea when administered both fresh and in a freeze-dried form. CONCLUSIONS: Transformed lactobacilli may form the basis of a novel form of prophylactic treatment against rotavirus infections and other diarrheal diseases.

Published 3 November 2006 in J Infect Dis, 194(11): 1580-8.
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