Unbiased Identification of Immunogenic Staphylococcus aureus Leukotoxin B-Cell Epitopes

Abstract

Unbiased identification of individual immunogenic B-cell epitopes in major antigens of a pathogen remains a technology challenge for vaccine discovery. We therefore developed a platform for rapid phage display screening of deep recombinant libraries consisting of as few as one major pathogen antigen. Using the bicomponent pore-forming leukocidin (Luk) exotoxins of the major pathogen Staphylococcus aureus as a prototype, we randomly fragmented and separately ligated the hemolysin gamma A (HlgA) and LukS genes into a custom-built phage display system, termed pComb-Opti8.