Smriti Verma (@microsmriti.bsky.social)

I am happy and proud to share this study. Here we delve into the mechanisms of protection provided by antibodies targeting the O-specific polysaccharide of LPS of Vibrio cholerae previously shown by our group to be a determinant of protection against cholera. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

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Human antibody targeting Vibrio cholerae O1 O-specific polysaccharide induces an amotile hypovirulent bacterial phenotype: mechanism of protection against cholera | mBio Immunity to cholera is largely mediated by antibodies targeting the O-specific polysaccharide (OSP) of Vibrio cholerae, including through agglutination as well as inhibition of bacterial motility. Here, we used bacterial transcriptomic, biochemical, and cellular analyses to evaluate additional effects of OSP-specific antibodies on V. cholerae in complex media containing mucin and in a human enteroid-derived monolayer colonization model. We found that anti-OSP antibody in mucin impacts bacterial motility, growth, metabolic activity, extracellular matrix production, and levels of cyclic di-GMP. We did not observe a direct effect on bacterial viability, sodium motive force gradient, membrane integrity for large molecules, or virulence gene or regulon expression in bacterial cultures, although cholera toxin detection was significantly decreased in the enteroid model. Our results uncover the broad impact of anti-OSP antibodies in the presence of mucin on V. cholerae physiology and suggest several ways OSP-specific antibodies mediate protection against cholera in humans. https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mbio.02235-25