Letter to the Editor: Humoral Immunity against Bordetella pertussis: Antibodies or B Cells?

Abstract

Kirimanjeswara et al. studied the role of B cells and antibodies in immunity to Bordetella by using murine infection models for Bordetella bronchiseptica and the human pathogens B. pertussis and B. parapertussis. They showed that although B cells are required for efficient clearance of all three Bordetella species, intraperitoneal injection of murine immune sera results in clearance of B. bronchiseptica, whereas the human pathogens persist. From these data and results of previously published studies which failed to show opsonic activity of human immune sera in vitro, they conclude that Bordetella species that are pathogenic for humans may have acquired the capacity to evade the human humoral immune response. The study by Kirimanjeswara and colleagues is a valuable contribution to the field. However, an alternative explanation for their results should not remain unmentioned.