Pertussis Antibodies, Proteins & ELISA Kits

Pertussis, also known as "whooping cough", is a highly contagious disease which is caused by gram-negative coccobacillus bacteria; Bordetella pertussis and Bordetella parapertussis. Pertussis is transmitted through airborne droplets when infected individuals cough or sneeze.

Pertussis occurs in three stages; the catarrhal phase, paroxysmal phase and the convalescent phase. Throughout the three stages, symptoms such as fatigue, fever, rhinorrhea, paroxysms, apnea, post-tussive emesis and a “whooping cough” occur. This distinct cough is when there is a forceful inspiration of air and it is often followed by period of vomiting. Pertussis was a main cause of infant mortality before the development of vaccines. There are different types of vaccines which protect against pertussis and other diseases. One example is the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTaP) vaccine. However, while extensive pertussis vaccination programs have been a success, there is still the need for further pertussis research for vaccine development.

Filamentous haemagglutinin (Fha) is an adherence molecule of B. pertussis which also acts as a suppressor of inflammation. B. pertussis also has pertactin (PRN) and fimbriae (FIM) structures and the pathogen releases toxins such as; pertussis toxin (PT), dermonecrotic toxin (DNT), adenylate cyclase toxin (AC) and tracheal cytotoxin (TCT).

Receptors on monocytes which bind to B. pertussis antigens are complement receptor type 3 (CD11b/CD18) and very late antigen-5 (VLA-5). As well as this, Fha stimulates toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) signaling pathways and TLR4 recognizes B. pertussis lipopolysaccharides (LPS) during pertussis infections.

It is important to get a better understanding of the host immune response to B. pertussis in order to develop more efficacious vaccines against the virus. During pertussis infections a range of cytokines are produced such as interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), IL-6, IL-10, IL-12, IL-17 and IL-23.

Immunometabolism is an important area of science which encompasses regions of metabolism and immunology. Many of the functional capacities of immune cells are dependent on the metabolic state of the cell and its capability to mount an immune response. Assay Genie provides a wide range of immunometabolism products such as glycolysis, fatty acid oxidation, the citric acid (TCA) cycle and oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) assays kits.

In particular, B. pertussis has been shown to cause activated macrophages to upregulate glycolysis in order for the host immune cells to rapidly respond to the environmental stress. This type of altered metabolism if often seen in cancer cells and it is called Warburg metabolism.

Animal models are useful research tools which are often used in early stages of therapeutic product development and pathogenesis studies. B. pertussis does not naturally cause disease in animals. However, experiments using animals are important for understanding pertussis infections. For example, rats, mice, rabbits, dogs, ferrets, and primates have been used for pertussis research. In particular, mouse animal models have been used to examine the pathogenesis of B. pertussis but they do not have the characteristic cough feature of the human disease and therefore, cannot spread the infection to other mice. Primates can be used for pertussis research but when they get older, they sometimes become resistant to the disease, so newborn primates are more commonly used to study the infection.