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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, August 2005, p. 3681-3687, Vol. 43, No. 8
0095-1137/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JCM.43.8.3681-3687.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Pertussis Reference Laboratory, National Public Health Institute, Turku, Finland,1 Department of Immunology and Vaccine Research, Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control, Solna, Sweden,2 Department of Pediatrics, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland3
Received 7 December 2004/ Returned for modification 19 January 2005/ Accepted 12 April 2005
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Vaccinations against pertussis have been in use for more than 50 years. Despite the high vaccination coverage rates among children, the incidence of pertussis has increased in countries such as Australia, France, The Netherlands, Poland, and the United States (2, 4, 7, 18, 21, 25). In Finland, vaccination against pertussis has been a part of the National Vaccination Program since 1952. The vaccine is produced at the National Public Health Institute, Helsinki, Finland. Strain 18530 (Prn genotype prn1, Ptx subunit S1 genotype ptxA3, Fim serotype 3 [Fim3]) has been used since 1962. In 1976, strain 1772 (prn1, ptxA2, Fim2.3) was added to the vaccine, and the vaccine has not changed since then. The vaccination coverage rate has been high in Finland. The latest survey carried out by the National Public Health Institute showed that the rate of coverage with the four doses of the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine was 95.6% among children born in 1999 (16). Still, pertussis has been endemic in Finland, and there has been a notable increase in the numbers of pertussis cases during the last few years: 1,264 (incidence, 24.3/100,000 population) laboratory-confirmed cases were reported in 2003, whereas 315 (6.1/100,000 population) laboratory-confirmed cases were reported in 2001. The laboratory confirmation was done by PCR, culture, or serology.
The connection between these changes and the reemergence of pertussis has, however, remained unclear. The changes observed in the virulence factors of B. pertussis may affect the virulence and immunogenic characteristics of the bacteria. Furthermore, changes in B. pertussis might be of importance, especially in the adolescent population with waning immunity, although this might not have an obvious reduction of the efficacy of pertussis vaccines in younger children.
The aim of this study was to study changes in Finnish B. pertussis isolates during the 50 years of the whole-cell vaccination, 1953 to 2003. We analyzed 122 Finnish B. pertussis isolates and 2 Finnish vaccine strains (18530 and 1772). The analysis included serotyping of Fim and genotyping of ptxA and prn. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) analysis of the isolates was performed. We also wanted to compare circulating strains with the vaccine strains.
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FIG. 1. Distribution of the B. pertussis isolates among the 22 hospital districts of Finland. Between 1991 and 2003, the strain collection of the Pertussis Reference Laboratory in the National Public Health Institute of Finland obtained 359 isolates from 13 hospital districts, and 101 isolates were analyzed in this study. The Pertussis Reference Laboratory is located in the region of the hospital district of southwest Finland.
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TABLE 1. Characteristics of the Finnish vaccine strains and B. pertussis isolates analyzed in this study
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Serotyping. The serotypes of six control strains (two Fim2 strains, three Fim3 strains, and one Fim2.3 strain) and two Finnish vaccine strains (Fim3 and Fim2.3) obtained by both the microtiter plate and the slide agglutination methods were first compared. The control strains were kindly provided by D. Xing from the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC), United Kingdom. As the two methods gave identical typing results, the B. pertussis isolates of this study were serotyped by slide agglutination. Antibody reactions were performed with monoclonal antibodies against the major subunit of Fim. The antibodies against Fim2 and Fim3 were also provided by D. Xing from NIBSC. The antibodies (for Fim2, monoclonal antibody NIBSC 04/154; for Fim3, monoclonal antibody NIBSC 04/156) were produced for research purposes only. They had been produced in mice and were purified partially, and their concentrations were not declared. Thus, appropriate dilutions for Fim2 and Fim3 antibodies were defined experimentally.
Before serotyping, the bacteria were cultured on Regan-Lowe medium containing charcoal agar and defibrinated sheep blood at 35°C for 2 days. The agglutination reaction was done on a glass slide with 40 µl of diluted antibody solution (dilution of 1:100 in phosphate-buffered saline). If the agglutination reaction was obtained with the Fim2 antibody, the Fim3 antibody, or both antibodies, the serotype was defined as Fim2, Fim3, or Fim2.3, respectively. If no reaction was detected, the serotype was defined as untypeable. Autoagglutination was examined with phosphate-buffered saline in parallel with monoclonal antibodies.
Real-time PCR for genotyping. The isolates were analyzed for the pertussis toxin and pertactin genes by LightCycler PCR and gel electrophoresis methods, according to the protocols described by Mäkinen et al. (12, 13).
Pertussis toxin S1 subunit. Different alleles of the ptxA gene were distinguished by two fluorescent resonance energy transfer (FRET) probe assays (12). The assays were performed with a LightCycler DNA Master Hybridization Probes kit (Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Mannheim, Germany). The first assay differentiates the ptxA1 allele from the ptxA2, ptxA3, and ptxA4 alleles. In the second probe assay, the ptxA4 type of DNA is differentiated from the ptxA2 and ptxA3 types. The control strains for ptxA1, ptxA2, ptxA3, and ptxA4 were PRCB333, 1772, 18530, and 18323, respectively. Negative controls without DNA were included in each run.
Pertactin. Eight allelic variants (prn1 to prn8) of the prn gene were discriminated in three steps: allele-specific amplification with SYBR Green dye, hybridization assay with FRET probes, and gel electrophoresis (13). In the first step, the prn6 to prn8 alleles are distinguished from the prn1 to prn5 alleles, as no specific amplification of DNAs with the prn6 to prn8 alleles is observed. The allele-specific amplification was done with a LightCycler-FastStart DNA Master SYBR Green I kit (Roche Diagnostics GmbH). The second step, PCR with FRET probes, distinguishes alleles prn1, prn2 to prn4, and prn5 from each other. The hybridization probe assay was performed with the LightCycler DNA Master Hybridization Probes kit (Roche Diagnostics GmbH). The prn2 to prn4 types were further distinguished by agarose gel electrophoresis of the PCR products from the hybridization probe assay. The alleles were differentiated by the sizes of the PCR products. The control strains for different prn allelic variants were 1772 (prn1), PRCB333 (prn2), RUS4 (prn3), PRCB9 (prn4), B935 (prn5), and 18323 (prn6).
PFGE. Isolates were analyzed by the PFGE protocol described by Advani et al. (1). The PFGE analyses were performed in The Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control, Solna, Sweden. Genomic DNA was digested with the restriction enzyme XbaI (Amersham Biosciences, Little Chalfont, United Kingdom). The electrophoresis analyses were performed on a DRIII contour-clamped homogeneous electric field apparatus (Bio-Rad). The band patterns obtained were analyzed with BioNumerics, version 3, software (Applied Maths, Sint-Martens-Latem, Belgium). Different PFGE profiles were defined by one or more band differences in the DNA band patterns. The clustering method used was the unweighted pair group with arithmetic clustering (UPGMA) dendrogram type with the Dice similarity coefficient, 1% optimization, and 1% tolerance. The nomenclature was based on the defined profiles already observed in Sweden (BpSR). Profiles assigned BpFINR have been found only among the Finnish isolates analyzed.
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Genotyping. The ptxA genotype of Finnish pertussis vaccine strain 18530 was ptxA3. The isolates from 1953 to 1965 and strain 1772, added to the vaccine in 1976, represented the ptxA2 genotype. All other isolates represented the ptxA1 genotype (Table 1). Thus, the change in the prevalent ptxA type of the circulating B. pertussis strains had already occurred in 1970s.
In the 1950s, the prevalent prn allele was prn1, which is also represented in the Finnish vaccine strains (Table 1). The change from prn1 to prn2 was already seen in the isolates from 1982, as all of them represented prn2. In 1991 and 1992, one-third of the isolates still represented prn1 allele (N = 4), but prn1 was last seen in Finnish isolates in 1999 (n = 1). All the recent isolates demonstrated the prn2 allele. The prn3 and prn4 alleles occurred only twice among the isolates tested.
PFGE. A total of 34 different profiles were found among the strains studied (Table 1 and Fig. 2). The profile of vaccine strain 18530 (BpFINR13) was not found among the isolates. Two profiles, BpFINR1 and BpFINR14, were found among the isolates recovered from 1953 to 1965. Those profiles have not appeared since then. Vaccine strain 1772, added to the Finnish pertussis vaccine in 1976, and 8 of the 10 isolates from 1977 represented the profile BpSR23, which was also found in 1 isolate recovered in 1999. The profiles of other isolates from 1977 (BpFINR9 and BpSR46) have not occurred since then. The isolates from 1982 represented profile BpSR18, which still appeared occasionally, in five isolates, between 1992 and 2003.
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FIG. 2. Classification of the 34 PFGE profiles represented in the Finnish B. pertussis isolates and vaccine strains (indicated by "V") and the reference strains of PFGE (indicated by asterisks). Classification was performed by using the UPGMA dendrogram type with the Dice similarity coefficient, 1% optimization, and 1% tolerance.
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TABLE 2. Characteristics of the three most frequent PFGE profiles among the isolates analyzed in this study
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The results of this study concur with previously published suggestions on the continuous evolution of B. pertussis and its virulence factors (4, 24, 25). In Finland, the first known change in virulence factors had already occurred in the S1 subunit of pertussis toxin in the 1970s, leading to ptxA1 being the predominant allele. This transition has been seen in many countries (4, 7, 11, 18, 24, 25) and is suggested to be vaccine driven (15), as the strains used in the whole-cell pertussis vaccines do not contain the ptxA1 variant. The second noticeable change was seen from 1980 to the 1990s, as the prevalent pertactin allele shifted from prn1 to prn2. A similar shift has been reported in the United States (4). An increase in the frequency of the prn3 genotype was not seen in Finland in those days, which is in contrast to the situation in France and The Netherlands (15, 25), as only two Finnish isolates represented prn3. In Australia, prn1 changed to prn3, and prn2 did not appear until the mid-1990s (18). Our results correspond to the shift observed in the United States (4), indicating that the changes in ptxA and prn happened through a transition period. The prevalent genotype, ptxA2 or ptxA3 and prn1, first changed to ptxA1 and prn1, followed by a second modification to ptxA1 and prn2. This was the genotype of all Finnish isolates included in our study from 2003. Ten isolates recovered from 1991 to 1999 were found to harbor prn1. In Italy, the frequency of prn1 was shown to be higher in an unvaccinated population than in the vaccinated population (11), which may partially explain the low number of prn1 isolates in Finland and other countries with high vaccination coverage rates. We also confirm the findings of van Loo et al. (24), which indicate that serotypes Fim2, Fim2.3, and Fim3 have been evident in the B. pertussis population throughout the decades and which showed differences only in the frequencies of the different serotypes. Recently, the predominant serotype has changed from Fim2 to Fim3, which has also been the case in Australia (18) and The Netherlands (24).
The PFGE profiles of the Finnish isolates show that the prevalent PFGE profiles change temporally, as suggested by Weber et al. (25). The profiles represented in the Finnish isolates from past decades only occasionally appear in the recent isolates. All of the BpFINR profiles that were not seen in the recent Swedish study, based on a large number of isolates (1), and most of the BpSR profiles appear in only a few isolates within 1 to 3 years. The isolates with the BpFINR profiles represent unique subtypes that for some reason do not seem to spread as well as some other strains. Three of the PFGE profiles among the Finnish isolates were distinguished by their frequencies. The BpSR1, BpSR11, and BpSR147 profiles were found in 14 to 18 isolates within a few years. The BpSR147 profile was represented in 42% of the isolates during the years of its occurrence. All other profiles appeared in no more than four isolates during the period. Thus, few PFGE profiles are represented in a considerable proportion of circulating isolates, as also described earlier (3). Even though the research material used in our study was limited, the isolates representing the BpSR1, BpSR11, and BpSR147 profiles were from three to four hospital districts in Finland and, thus, do not represent local outbreaks. As the changes in the PFGE profiles and virulence factors are merged, it is seen that the recent increase in serotype Fim3 observed since 1999 interfaces with the appearance of new PFGE profiles. Eight PFGE profiles were represented among 30 isolates with the Fim3 serotype, which were detected in 1999 or later, including the BpSR11 profile, which was the second most common PFGE profile of all time in Finland. Among the 30 isolates, 28 were Fim3 and 2 were Fim2.3. The other common PFGE profiles, BpSR1 and BpSR147, detected during earlier epidemics correlate with serotype Fim2. Weber et al. (25) questioned the connection between PFGE profiles and antigenic changes. Our results, however, suggest that the serotype change may be correlated with the appearance of new PFGE profiles.
Typing of the virulence factors of B. pertussis isolates helps to validate the idea of the continuous evolution of the bacteria. However, when additional information is craved, the PFGE reference system published by Advani et al. (1) is very profitable and provides more precise evidence of the changes at the molecular level. Our results show that ptxA and prn have changed before the recent reemergence of pertussis. However, the role of the Fim3 type of strains with new PFGE profiles in the increased incidence of pertussis should be studied further.
In this study, PFGE analysis of B. pertussis isolates representing the six decades of experience with whole-cell vaccination showed the emergence of new PFGE profiles and the disappearance of the former ones, in parallel with changes in the virulence factors. In Finland, the whole-cell pertussis vaccine has been replaced with an acellular vaccine in 2005. The effects of acellular vaccines on the circulating B. pertussis strains should be closely monitored. This study lays a good background for further monitoring of the circulating B. pertussis isolates in Finland. The exceptionally stable vaccination history with a high vaccination coverage rate makes Finland a good location for monitoring of the changes in the B. pertussis population after the introduction of a new vaccination program with acellular pertussis vaccines in Finland in 2005.
This work was financially supported by the Academy of Finland, the Special Governmental Fund for University Hospitals (EVO), and the European Commission Quality of Life Program (QLK2-CT-2001-01819, Eupertstrain).
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