Shi Xi-Ju, Wang Bin, Wang Ming
College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100094, PR China.
Vaccine. 2007 Jan 26;25(7):1257-64. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2006.10.017. Epub 2006 Oct 17.
Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious disease in cloven-hoofed animals and can cause a considerable socio-economic loss for affected countries. Interleukin-18 (IL-18) is a pleiotropic cytokine and plays important role in both the development of a functional immune system as well as the response of the organism to infection. In the present study, bovine IL-18 (BoIL-18), Foot-and-mouth disease virus VP1 and VP1/BoIL-18 fusion genes were cloned and expressed in pichia pastoris (P. pastoris) and subsequently immune effects were evaluated to study the immune enhancing effects of recombinant BoIL-18 (rBoIL-18) on FMD vaccination. The results showed that the genes encoding for BoIL-18, VP1 and VP1/BoIL-18 are successfully expressed in P. pastoris and the expressed recombinant VP1 (rVP1) proteins could induce both humoral and marginal cell-mediated immune responses in mice, while the co-inoculation with rBoIL-18 could markedly enhance both of immune responses, and the inoculation of the fusion product rVP1/BoIL-18 showed even more dramatic immune responses, suggesting rBoIL-18 has a potential to enhance the efficacy of vaccination against FMDV infection.
口蹄疫（FMD）是偶蹄动物的一种高度传染性疾病，会给受影响国家造成相当大的社会经济损失。白细胞介素-18（IL-18）是一种多效性细胞因子，在功能性免疫系统的发育以及机体对感染的反应中都发挥着重要作用。在本研究中，牛白细胞介素-18（BoIL-18）、口蹄疫病毒VP1和VP1/BoIL-18融合基因被克隆并在毕赤酵母中表达，随后评估免疫效果，以研究重组BoIL-18（rBoIL-18）对口蹄疫疫苗接种的免疫增强作用。结果表明，编码BoIL-18、VP1和VP1/BoIL-18的基因在毕赤酵母中成功表达，表达的重组VP1（rVP1）蛋白可在小鼠中诱导体液免疫和边缘细胞介导的免疫反应，而与rBoIL-18共同接种可显著增强这两种免疫反应，接种融合产物rVP1/BoIL-18显示出更显著的免疫反应，表明rBoIL-18有增强针对口蹄疫病毒感染疫苗接种效果的潜力。
