Recombinant outer membrane protein C of Aeromonas hydrophila elicits mixed immune response and generates agglutinating antibodies

Aeromonas hydrophila is a gram-negative fish pathogenic bacterium, also responsible for causing opportunistic pathological conditions in humans. It causes a number of diseases in fish due to which the fish industry incurs huge economic losses annually. Due to problems of antibiotic resistance, and the rapidity with which the infection spreads among fishes, vaccination remains the most effective strategy to combat this infection in fish populations. Among various virulence factors associated with bacterial virulence, outer membrane proteins have been widely evaluated for their vaccine potential owing to their surface exposure and related role in pathogenicity. In the present study, we have investigated the immunogenic potential of a non-specific porin, outer membrane protein C (OmpC) whose expression is regulated by the two-component regulatory system and plays a major role in the survival of A. hydrophila under different osmolaric conditions. The full-length gene (~1 kb) encoding OmpC of A. hydrophila was cloned, characterized and expressed in E. coli. High yield (~112 mg/L at shake flask level) of the recombinant OmpC (rOmpC) (~40 kDa) of A. hydrophila was obtained upon purification from inclusion bodies using Ni²⁺-NTA affinity chromatography. Immunization with purified rOmpC in murine model generated high endpoint (>1:40,000) titers. IgG isotyping, ELISA and ELISPOT assay indicated mixed immune response with a T_H2 bias. Also, the anti-rOmpC antibodies were able to agglutinate A. hydrophila in vitro and exhibited specific cross-reactivity with different Aeromonas strains, which will facilitate easy detection of different Aeromonas isolates in infected samples. Taken together, these data clearly indicate that rOmpC could serve as an effective vaccine against different strains of Aeromonas, a highly heterogenous group of bacteria.