Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases, University of Pretoria, Onderstepoort, South Africa.
Africa Health Research Institute, Durban, South Africa.
Sci Rep. 2018 Nov 16;8(1):16937. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-35382-8.
Anthrax is primarily recognized as an affliction of herbivores with incubation period ranging from three to five days post-infection. Currently, the Sterne live-spore vaccine is the only vaccine approved for control of the disease in susceptible animals. While largely effective, the Sterne vaccine has several problems including adverse reactions in sensitive species, ineffectiveness in active outbreaks and incompatibility with antibiotics. These can be surmounted with the advent of recombinant peptides (non-living) next generation vaccines. The candidate vaccine antigens comprised of recombinant protective antigen (PA), spore-specific antigen (bacillus collagen-like protein of anthracis, BclA) and formaldehyde inactivated spores (FIS). Presently, little information exists on the protectivity of these novel vaccine candidates in susceptible ruminants. Thus, this study sought to assess the immunogenicity of these vaccine candidates in goats and evaluate their protectivity using an in vivo mouse model. Goats receiving a combination of PA, BclA and FIS yielded the highest antibody and toxin neutralizing titres compared to recombinant peptides alone. This was also reflected in the passive immunization experiment whereby mice receiving immune sera from goats vaccinated with the antigen combination had higher survival post-challenge. In conclusion, the current data indicate promising potential for further development of non-living anthrax vaccines in ruminants.
炭疽主要被认为是一种侵害草食动物的疾病，潜伏期从感染后三到五天不等。目前，Sterne 活孢子疫苗是唯一获准用于控制易感动物疾病的疫苗。虽然 Sterne 疫苗在很大程度上是有效的，但它有几个问题，包括在敏感物种中出现不良反应、在活跃的疫情中无效以及与抗生素不兼容。这些问题可以随着下一代重组肽（非活体）疫苗的出现而得到解决。候选疫苗抗原包括重组保护性抗原（PA）、芽孢特异性抗原（炭疽芽孢杆菌胶原蛋白样蛋白，BclA）和甲醛灭活芽孢（FIS）。目前，关于这些新型疫苗候选物在易感反刍动物中的保护力的信息很少。因此，本研究旨在评估这些疫苗候选物在山羊中的免疫原性，并使用体内小鼠模型评估它们的保护力。与单独使用重组肽相比，同时接受 PA、BclA 和 FIS 的山羊产生了最高的抗体和毒素中和效价。这也反映在被动免疫实验中，接受接种抗原组合的山羊免疫血清的小鼠在接受挑战后具有更高的存活率。总之，目前的数据表明，非活体炭疽疫苗在反刍动物中的进一步开发具有很大的潜力。
