peopleDan Wolfe
Ex-Graduate Student
Research while at CIDD
The evolution of a genus of gram-negative bacteria: Bordetella.
B. pertussis and B. parapertussis are both considered etiologic agents of whooping cough. This is primarily a childhood disease; infection or vaccination confers a significant level of host immunity. Epidemiological theory holds that if two antigenically similar pathogens are occupying the same host population, the more virulent of the two should displace the other. However, B. pertussis and B. parapertussis appear to be able to coexist within the human population; in fact, they have been observed to coinfect individuals. We have hypothesized that there is asymmetrical cross-protection between B. pertussis and B. parapertussis.
Using a mouse model, we analyzed:
- Whether these two pathogens confer efficient immune responses to one another
- The level of reciprocal immunity
- The virulence factors that allow for the evasion of cross-protection