Surfactant proteins A (SP-A) and D (SP-D) play an important role in the innate immune defenses of the respiratory tract. SP-A binds to the lipid A region of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and SP-D binds to the core oligosaccharide region. Both proteins induce aggregation, act as opsonins for neutrophils and macrophages, and have direct antimicrobial activity. Bordetella pertussis LPS has a branched ...

Bordetella pertussis was isolated from a culture of blood from a 31-year-old man with Wegener's granulomatosis. The organism was detected with the BACTEC 9240 system after 6 days of incubation and was confirmed as B. pertussis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To our knowledge, this is the first published report of the recovery of B. pertussis from blood.

A Bordetella pertussis strain lacking 2 acellular vaccine immunogens, pertussis toxin and pertactin, was isolated from an unvaccinated infant in New York State in 2013. Comparison with a French strain that was pertussis toxin-deficient, pertactin wild-type showed that the strains carry the same 28-kb deletion in similar genomes.

We have characterized a new virulence factor in Bordetella pertussis: serum resistance. Compared with Escherichia coli HB101, wild-type B. pertussis was relatively resistant to classical-pathway, complement-dependent killing by normal human serum. However, a mutant of B. pertussis (BPM2041) which is less virulent in mice and which has Tn5 lac inserted in a previously uncharacterized bvg-regulat...

The bfeA (Bordetella ferric enterobactin) receptor gene was cloned from a Bordetella pertussis chromosomal library by using a screen in Escherichia coli to detect iron-repressed genes encoding exported proteins translationally fused to the E. coli phoA gene. The bfeA gene encoded a protein with a molecular mass of approximately 80 kDa and about 50% amino acid sequence identity to both the fepA-...

Introduction: Despite high level of vaccination against pertussis‚ whooping cough has re-emerged as a health threat, especially in infants. This could be related to expansion of Bordetella pertussis with novel alleles for virulence factors including the pertussis toxin promoter, ptxP3. Compared to ptxp1 strains‚ ptxp3 strains produce more pertussis toxin which results in immune supp...

Molecular detection of Bordetella pertussis DNA is a sensitive and specific method for the rapid diagnosis of pertussis. In this study, a new molecular assay for the detection and differentiation of Bordetella spp. based on automated DNA extraction and real-time PCR was evaluated. The analytical sensitivity of the new assay was determined by Probit analysis of serial dilutions of both cloned PC...

The molecular mechanisms of Bordetella virulence are now well understood, and many virulence factors have been identified and characterized at the molecular level. These virulence factors can be grouped into two major categories: adhesins, such as filamentous hemagglutinin, pertactin and fimbriae, and toxins, such as pertussis toxin, adenylate cyclase, dermonecrotic toxin and tracheal cytotoxin...

We examined Bordetella avium for virulence factors common to Bordetella pertussis, including pertussis toxin, filamentous hemagglutinin, adenylate cyclase, dermonecrotic toxin, and tracheal cytotoxin. B. avium produced a dermonecrotic toxin and a tracheal cytotoxin. The dermonecrotic toxin of B. avium is a 155,000-molecular-weight, heat-labile protein which was lethal for mice, guinea pigs, you...