The role of the filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA) and the lymphocytosis-promoting factor hemagglutinin (LPF) in pertussis pathogenesis and immunity is the subject of active investigation. To be certain of their role as protective antigens, the hemagglutinins must be pure and free of each other. This report describes procedures to separate and purify FHA and LPF from the culture supernatant of sta...

The filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA) of Bordetella pertussis plays an important role in establishing infection by attaching the bacteria to the ciliated respiratory epithelial cells. Expression of DNA encoding residues 1141 to 1279 of FHA in Escherichia coli yields a protein of 18,000 Da that exhibits some of the carbohydrate recognition properties of FHA (S. M. Prasad, Y. Yin, E. Rodzinski, E. ...

OBJECTIVES Previous research identified alexithymia as a potential risk factor for substance use disorders (SUD). More insight into the relation between alexithymia and SUD is needed in order to treat SUD effectively. Therefore, we investigated whether a familial vulnerability to alcoholism relates to the presence and severity of alexithymia in SUD patients. METHOD Hospitalized, abstinent SUD...

Fluoridated hydroxyapatite (FHA) coatings exhibit great potential for applications on implants which require good bioactivity and high antibacterial activity. This work is a comparative study of chemical stability, adhesive strength and zeta potential of a nanothick (about 200 nm) FHA coating which is densely and uniformly deposited on a titanium substrate electrochemically. The chemical stabil...

Intranasal administration of live attenuated Bordetella pertussis, from which the pertussis toxin gene has been deleted, has previously been shown to give rise to high levels of serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies against both the protective antigen filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA) and heterologous antigens genetically fused to FHA. Here, we extend these results by demonstrating that anti-FH...

Mucosal immunization of mice with purified Bordetella pertussis filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA), by either the respiratory or the gut route, was found to protect against B. pertussis infection of the trachea and lungs. Intranasal immunization of BALB/c and (C57BL/6 x C3H/HeN)F1 adult female mice with FHA prior to B. pertussis aerosol challenge resulted in a 2 to 3 log reduction in number of bac...

Bordetella pertussis, the etiological agent of whooping cough, produces a number of factors, such as toxins and adhesins, that are required for full expression of virulence. Filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA) is the major adhesin of B. pertussis. It is a protein of approximately 220 kDa, found both associated at the bacterial cell surface and secreted into the extracellular milieu. Despite its imp...

Adenylate cyclase (AC) toxin from Bordetella pertussis is unusual in that, unlike most other members of the repeats-in-toxin family that are released into the extracellular milieu, it remains associated with the bacterial surface. In this study, we investigated the nature of the association of this toxin with the surface of B. pertussis. AC toxin was extracted from crude outer membrane preparat...

Motor proteins not actively involved in transporting cargoes should remain inactive at sites of cargo loading to save energy and remain available for loading. KIF1A/Unc104 is a monomeric kinesin known to dimerize into a processive motor at high protein concentrations. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying monomer stabilization and monomer-to-dimer transition are not well understood. Here...