Bacterium is still a major cause of many
infectious diseases and a global threat to human health, aquaculture, and animal feeding. Prevention by vaccination is the most efficient and economical way of fighting
bacterial diseases, but one of the persistent challenges to prevent
bacterial infections and disease transmissions is the existence of multiple bacterial species, families, and genera and the lack of efficient
polyvalent vaccines against them. The information on candidate immunogens for
polyvalent vaccine development is elusive, as well. For the development of broad cross-protective
vaccines, we have employed heterogeneous antiserum-based immunoproteomics approaches to identify antigenically similar outer membrane (OM)
proteins that could be used as potential
polyvalent vaccine candidates against Vibrio parahaemolyticus , V. alginolyticus , V. fluvialis , Aeromonas hydrophila , and A. sobria
infections. VPA1435, VP0764, VPA1186, VP1061, and VP2850 could be recognized by at least three
antisera and demonstrated significantly passive and active immune protection against V. parahaemolyticus
infection in a crucian carp model. VP1061 and VP2850 induced higher immune and protective abilities than the other three OM
proteins. Furthermore, the abilities of VP1061 and VP2850 in the generation of broad cross-protective immune reaction against the
infections of V. alginolyticus , A. hydrophila , and Pseudomonas fluorescens were also investigated in fish and mouse models. Our results suggested that VP1061 and VP2850 could potentially be used as
polyvalent vaccine candidates for the development of novel
polyvalent vaccines against V. parahaemolyticus and other Gram-negative pathogens. On the basis of these results, characteristics of OM
proteins as
polyvalent vaccine candidates have been addressed.