Protection against murine listeriosis by oral vaccination with recombinant Salmonella expressing protective listerial epitopes within a surface-exposed loop of the TolC-protein

Based on the topology of the outer membrane protein TolC of Escherichia coli, a new plasmid-encoded system was created which allows the expression of antigenic peptides within permissive, surface-exposed domains of TolC. To assess the capacity of this novel antigen display system, a protective CD4 T-cell epitope of the p60 protein of Listeria monocytogenes was inserted within an extracellular loop of the TolC-protein and expressed in surface-exposed form by attenuated Salmonella enteritidis. Mice immunized orally with this recombinant S. enteritidis live vaccine strain were protected against a lethal challenge with wildtype L. monocytogenes.