Federico Carlos Blanco 2019

Dr Federico Carlos Blanco

INTA, Argentina

The isolate Mb04-303 induces a proinflammatory innate immune profile and is a potential candidate for an attenuated mutant vaccine against bovine tuberculosis

Poster Abstract

Bovine tuberculosis is an important animal and zoonotic disease cuased by Mycobacterium bovis. The innate immune response is the first line of defence against pathogens and is also crucial for the development of an efficient adaptive immune response. In this study we evaluated the innate immune response elicited by Mb04-303, a wild boar isolate of M.bovis, using an in vitro co-culture model of antigen presenting cells (APC) and autologous lymphocytes. Comparing different M.bovis strains we identified the cell populations and the immune mediators involved in the development of an efficient innate response capable of controlling the intracellular replication of M.bovis. Moreover, we obtained an attenuated mutant of Mb04-303 deleted in PhoP, an important virulence factor of M.tuberculosis and M.bovis, and tested as a candidate vaccine in a mouse model of TB. In this preliminary assay Mb04-303ΔPhoP proved to be more protective than the reference strain BCG.

Biography

I am a junior researcher at the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) and an assistant researcher of the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET). The main subject of my PhD was the development and evaluation of a vaccine against bovine tuberculosis and the study of host-pathogen interactions in experimental infections of cattle. My line of investigation is focused in those fields related with the study of pathogen virulence factors and cattle immune response.