Abstract
Glaesserella parasuis (G. parasuis) is commonly located in the upper respiratory tract of pigs as an opportunistic pathogen. It can cause Glässer's disease, which leads to serious economic losses in the swine industry. The occurrence of the disease is often linked with the adhesion and colonization of the pathogen. The PilA pilus subunit is important for adhesion to the host, twitching motility, and biofilm formation in many bacteria. However, no research has focused on the function of PilA in G. parasuis. To further reveal the pathogenesis of G. parasuis and to search for subunit vaccine candidates, we investigated whether PilA could adhere to cells and provide immune protection. A bioinformatic analysis showed that the protein secondary structure of the G. parasuis PilA was similar to that of Haemophilus influenzae (HI). Cell adhesion, ELISA, and far-Western blotting showed that rPilA could bind porcine-derived, porcine kidney-15 (PK-15) cells, swine tracheal epithelial cells (STECs), and the extracellular matrix components fibronectin (FN) and laminin (LN). An immunogenicity analysis showed that recombinant PilA (rPilA) reacted specifically with convalescent and hyperimmune serum. Importantly, purified rPilA elicited a strong immune response and conferred robust protection against challenges with serovar 5 G. parasuis in mice. These results suggested that the PilA protein might help G. parasuis adhere to host cells by binding to FN and LN, and its immunogenicity establishes it as a promising, novel subunit vaccine candidate against infections with G. parasuis. IMPORTANCE G. parasuis is one of the most prevalent bacterial infections in swine production and can lead to huge economic losses around the world. A full understanding of colonization and immunity with G. parasuis infections will be essential in disease control. In this study, the PilA protein, which is a common virulence factor in other bacteria that mediates adherence to the host, was assessed. The results suggested that the PilA protein of G. parasuis can mediate adhesion to host cells through FN and LN, which provides a new idea for the study of the pathogenicity of G. parasuis. Furthermore, fimbriae usually have high immunogenicity. Immunogenicity and protective capacity results showed that the use of this recombinant PilA antigen might be a promising candidate vaccine antigen with which to prevent G. parasuis infections.