Importance of Lipopolysaccharide and Cyclicβ-1,2-Glucans inBrucella-Mammalian Infections

Abstract

Brucellaspecies are the causative agents of one of the most prevalent zoonotic diseases: brucellosis. Infections byBrucellaspecies cause major economic losses in agriculture, leading to abortions in infected animals and resulting in a severe, although rarely lethal, debilitating disease in humans.Brucellaspecies persist as intracellular pathogens that manage to effectively evade recognition by the host's immune system. Sugar-modified components in theBrucellacell envelope play an important role in their host interaction.Brucellalipopolysaccharide (LPS), unlikeEscherichia coliLPS, does not trigger the host's innate immune system.Brucellaproduces cyclicβ-1,2-glucans, which are important for targeting them to their replicative niche in the endoplasmic reticulum within the host cell. This paper will focus on the role of LPS and cyclicβ-1,2-glucans inBrucella-mammalian infections and discuss the use of mutants, within the biosynthesis pathway of these cell envelope structures, in vaccine development.