近日,中山大学生命科学学院有害生物控制与资源利用国家重点实验室曹永长教授团队在Vaccine上发表了题目为"PED subunit vaccine based on COE domain replacement of flagellin domain D3 improved specific humoral and mucosal immunity in mice"的研究论文。该研究揭示了基于COE替换到鞭毛素抗原高变区的PED亚单位疫苗免疫原性大大提高,不仅提高了小鼠的体液免疫和黏膜免疫应答水平,同时激发了细胞免疫应答,为快速研制 PED 亚单位黏膜疫苗提供了新思路。
猪流行性腹泻病毒(porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, PEDV)属冠状病毒目冠状病毒科成员,其宿主细胞为肠道上皮细胞,主要引起仔猪呕吐、腹泻、厌食、脱水等。自2010年起,猪流行性腹泻病毒变异株在我国大规模暴发,给我国乃至世界养猪业造成重大经济损失。
重组蛋白的纯化与鉴定
免疫母猪从而为其哺乳仔猪提供保护是防控当前 PED 最有效的策略。为了研制安全有效又经济的疫苗,本研究基于鞭毛素作为分子内佐剂,利用大肠杆菌原核表达系统,根据目的抗原与鞭毛素的基因组合形式,设计了三种PED 基因工程亚单位候选疫苗,并在小鼠体内评估了这三种候选疫苗的免疫原性。结果显示,rSF-COE-3D 疫苗免疫组诱导产生的PEDV特异性血清 IgG/Ig A、粘液 Ig A以及血清中和抗体滴度均显著高于其他组。并且rSF-COE-3D 使小鼠产生了更多的CD3+CD8+ T 细胞和更多能分泌IFN-γ 和 IL-4 细胞因子的淋巴细胞。因此,本研究表明,rSF-COE-3D 候选疫苗具有更强的免疫原性,能更有效地诱导机体的体液和黏膜免疫应答,且能有效地激发细胞免疫应答。rSF-COE-3D有望研制成新的高效 PED 疫苗,这为快速研制高效的 PED 亚单位疫苗提供了新思路。
小鼠脾脏T细胞免疫反应
博士研究生李倩妞为本文第一作者,曹永长教授为本文通讯作者。
曹永长教授团队长期进行动物病毒学研究,先后获得国家自然科学基金、863项目、国家重点研发计划项目、广东省自然科学基金等科研项目的资助,发表SCI论文50余篇。目前该团队致力于流感病毒防控、冠状病毒(猪流行性腹泻病毒PEDV、鸡传染性支气管炎病毒IBV)遗传演化和免疫逃逸机制研究,已获得多项研究成果。
PED subunit vaccine based on COE domain replacement of flagellin domain D3 improved specific humoral and mucosal immunity in mice
Abstract
Porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) is an important re-emergent infectious disease and inflicts huge economic losses to the swine industry worldwide. To meet the pressing need of developing a safe and cost-efficient PED maternal vaccine, we generated three PED subunit vaccine candidates, using recombined Salmonella flagellin (rSF) as a mucosal molecular adjuvant. Domain D3 in rSF was replaced with COE domain of PEDV to generate rSF-COE-3D. COE fused to the flanking C0/N0 terminal of rSF yielded rSF-COE-C and rSF-COE-N. As a result, rSF-COE-3D could significantly improve COE specific antibody production including serum IgG, serum IgA, mucosal IgA and PEDV neutralizing antibody. Furthermore, rSFCOE-3D elicited more CD3+CD8+ T cell and cytokine production of IFN-c and IL-4 in mouse splenocytes. In summary, our data showed that rSF-COE-3D could improve specific humoral and mucosal immunity in mice, thus suggesting that rSF-COE-3D could be applied as a novel efficient maternal PED vaccine.