Preparation and Application of Clostridium perfringens Alpha Toxin Nanobodies

All subtypes of Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens) produce the alpha toxin (CPA), which can cause enteritis or enterotoxemia in lambs, cattle, pigs, and horses, as well as traumatic clostridial myonecrosis in humans and animals. CPA acts on cell membranes, ultimately leading to endocytosis and cell death. Therefore, the neutralization of CPA is crucial for the prevention and treatment of diseases caused by C. perfringens. In this study, utilizing CPA as an antigen, a nanobody (CPA-VHH) with a half-life of 2.9 h, an affinity constant (KD) of 0.9 nmol/L, and good stability below 60 °C was prepared from a natural nanobody library from alpacas. The biological activity analysis of CPA-VHH revealed its ability to effectively neutralize the phospholipase and hemolytic activity of CPA at a 15-fold ratio. In Vero cells, 9.8 μg/mL CPA-VHH neutralized the cytotoxicity of CPA at two times the half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀). In a mouse model, 35.7 ng/g body weight (BW) of CPA-VHH neutralized 90% of the lethality caused by a 2× median lethal dose (LD₅₀) of CPA. It was found that CPA-VHH protected 80% of mice within 30 min at 2 × LD₅₀ CPA, but this dropped below 50% after 2 h and to 0% after 4 h. Rescue trials indicated that using CPA-VHH within 30 min post-infection with 2 × LD₅₀ CPA achieved an 80% rescue rate, which decreased to 10% after 2 h. Furthermore, CPA-VHH effectively mitigated the reduction in the expression levels of zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1), Occludin, and Claudin-1, while also attenuating the upregulation of the pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-7 (IL-7), interleukin-8 (IL-8), tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) induced by CPA infection. Overall, this study has identified a specific nanobody, CPA-VHH, that effectively neutralizes CPA toxins in vitro and in animal models, providing a new tool for inhibiting the pathogenicity resulting from these toxins and laying an important foundation for the development of new anti-C. perfringens toxin-related therapeutic products.