Key Laboratory of Zoonosis of Ministry of Agriculture and National animal Protozoa Laboratory, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China.
Parasitol Res. 2012 Jun;110(6):2297-306. doi: 10.1007/s00436-011-2764-y. Epub 2011 Dec 27.
Immunity to Eimeria is species-specific, and chickens with immunity to one species of Eimeria remain susceptible to other Eimeria species. This presents a major challenge in the development of effective vaccines against multiple Eimeria species. In this study, we cloned the antigenic epitope of a tachyzoite surface protein gene of Eimeria tenella, a tachyzoite surface protein gene of Eimeria acervulina and the gametocyte protein gene of Eimeria maxima, and constructed prokaryotic and eukaryotic plasmids carrying the multi-epitope antigenic gene. Immunization of chickens with the multivalent DNA and protein conferred partial protection against infection by the three Eimeria species, as shown by increased CD4+ T lymphocytes in the intestinal mucosa, decreased oocyst excretion and intestinal lesions, and increased body weight gain compared with non-immunized controls. The DNA prime-protein boost immunization schedule induced greater cellular immunity and protection from Eimeria infection than immunization with DNA or protein alone. Our findings demonstrated that DNA prime-protein boost immunization with a multivalent vaccine could stimulate protective immunity against challenge infection of multiple Eimeria species. This work provides a promising step towards DNA-protein vaccination against multiple species of pathogens.
对艾美耳球虫的免疫具有种特异性，对一种艾美耳球虫具有免疫力的鸡仍然易感染其他艾美耳球虫。这给针对多种艾美耳球虫的有效疫苗的开发带来了重大挑战。在这项研究中，我们克隆了柔嫩艾美耳球虫裂殖子表面蛋白基因、堆型艾美耳球虫裂殖子表面蛋白基因和巨型艾美耳球虫配子体蛋白基因的抗原表位，并构建了携带多表位抗原基因的原核和真核质粒。用多价 DNA 和蛋白质免疫鸡可部分抵抗三种艾美耳球虫的感染，与未免疫对照组相比，肠黏膜中的 CD4+T 淋巴细胞增加，卵囊排出量和肠道病变减少，体重增加。DNA 初免-蛋白加强免疫方案比单独用 DNA 或蛋白免疫诱导更强的细胞免疫和对艾美耳球虫感染的保护作用。我们的研究结果表明，用多价疫苗进行 DNA 初免-蛋白加强免疫可以刺激针对多种艾美耳球虫挑战感染的保护性免疫。这项工作为针对多种病原体的 DNA-蛋白疫苗接种提供了一个有希望的步骤。
