Flagella hook protein FlgE is a novel vaccine candidate of Pseudomonas aeruginosa identified by a genomic approach.

Infections due to Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) are becoming a serious threat to patients in intensive care units. A PA vaccine is a practical and economical solution to solve the problems caused by PA infection successfully. In recent years, several antigen candidates have been tested in animal and human clinical trials, but none of them has been approved to date. An alternative strategy for antigen screening and protective antigens is in urgent demand. In this study, we generated a genome-wide library of PA protein fragments tagged with maltose-binding protein (MBP). Using sera from patients who recovered after PA infection, we identified a novel protective antigen, FlgE, which is the structural component of the flagella hook. Vaccination with recombinant FlgE (reFlgE) induced a Th2-predominant immune response and reduced bacterial load and inflammation in PA-infected mice. Anti-reFlgE antibodies recognized native FlgE on the bacterial membrane in vitro and conferred protection in mice, which may be due to the mediation of opsonophagocytic killing and inhibition of bacterial motility. In addition, the combination of reFlgE with rePcrV

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Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.