A new flow-cytometry-based opsonophagocytosis assay for the rapid measurement of functional antibody levels against Group B Streptococcus

Opsonophagocytosis is the primary mechanism for the clearance of Group B Streptococcus (GBS) by the host, and levels of opsonic antibodies may correlate with protection in preclinical models. A killing-based opsonophagocytosis assay (OPA), can be used to determine the functional activity of vaccine-induced GBS-specific antibodies. The assay, which measures the number of Bacterial colonies surviving phagocytic killing in the presence of specific antibodies and complement, is rather expensive, time-consuming and poorly standardized. Here we describe a rapid, sensitive and reproducible fluorescent OPA assay (fOPA) based on flow cytometry analysis (FACS), which allows internalized bacteria to be distinguished from those associated to the plasma membrane of phagocytic cells. Fixed GBS were labeled with pHrodo™, a Fluorescent Dye which dramatically increases the emitted fluorescence at the acidic conditions present in the phagocytic endosomal compartment. Labeled bacteria were incubated with HL-60 cells differentiated to phagocytes, antibodies and complement, and then analyzed by FACS. A further improvement to our method, allowing to reduce assay variability, consisted on a step of selection of effector cells among the HL-60 population. Analysis of sera from mice immunized with different GBS vaccines revealed comparable sensitivity and specificity with the traditional killing OPA assay (kOPA), and a good correlation between the fluorescent signal of bacteria internalized by HL-60 phagocytes and killing. Remarkably, the pHrodo-based approach reduced the variability observed with other fOPA assays. The obtained data indicate the proposed fOPA as a reliable and useful tool for functional antibody assessment.