Antigen 85 variation across lineages of Mycobacterium tuberculosis-implications for vaccine and biomarker success

Mycobacterium tuberculosis secretes several hundred proteins; many of which elicit immune responses. As a result, many of these proteins have been explored for their potential as diagnostic and vaccine candidates. Of these, the Antigen 85 complex proteins, represented by Antigen85 A, B, and C, are the most studied from the mycobacterial secretome. However, vaccine constructs exploiting Antigen 85 as the sole antigen repertoire have not experienced the pre-clinical and clinical trials success originally anticipated. Anecdotal and biochemical evidence suggests that differences in protein abundance may explain this phenomenon. Here, biochemical, molecular, and mass spectrometry approaches were used to quantify Antigen 85 among six M. tuberculosis strains from four phylogenetically distinct clades. Our data demonstrates that the greatest variation in Antigen 85 is ascribed to protein quantities, whereas few transcriptional differences were found. In addition, the ratio of Antigen 85 A, to B, to C is conserved within clades and phylogenetic neighbors. In contrast, no such relationship between individual protein quantities was observed, and in the case of Antigen85 B, this variation even extends within biological replicates of individual isolates. The relevance of Antigen 85 protein quantities and vaccine efficacy remains to be defined.

Absolute quantitation via multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry was used to determine the exact molar concentrations of Antigen 85A, B, and C; three key immunodominant proteins present in M. tuberculosis. Further, the concentration of these three proteins was compared among various clades of M. tuberculosis, and demonstrated differences in abundance of two of the three proteins. These proteins have been identified as key antigens in multiple vaccine and diagnostic platforms, thus the potential relevance of their abundance in various M. tuberculosis clades to the successful outcome of these interventions is discussed. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Trends in Microbial Proteomics.