Xiao Yan, Zhang Suling, Yan He, Geng Xiaolin, Wang Yanwei, Xu Xin, Wang Mengyue, Zhang Haohao, Huang Baicheng, Pang Wenqiang, Yang Ming, Tian Kegong
College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, China.
National Research Center for Veterinary Medicine, Luoyang, China.
Front Vet Sci. 2021 Feb 25;8:633706. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2021.633706. eCollection 2021.
Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), caused by FMD virus (FMDV), is a highly contagious and economically devastating viral disease of cloven-hoofed animals worldwide. In this study, the coexpression of small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO)-fused capsid proteins of FMDV serotype O by single plasmid in was achieved with an optimal tandem permutation (VP0-VP3-VP1), showing a protein yield close to 1:1:1. After SUMO removal at a low level of protease activity (5 units), the assembled FMDV virus-like particles (VLPs) could expose multiple epitopes and have a size similar to the naive FMDV. Immunization of pigs with the FMDV VLPs could induce FMDV-specific humoral and cellular immune responses effectively, in a dose-dependent manner. These data suggested that the stable FMDV VLPs with multiple epitope exposure were effective for the induction of an immune response in pigs, which laid a foundation for the further development of the FMDV subunit vaccine.
口蹄疫（FMD）由口蹄疫病毒（FMDV）引起，是一种在全球范围内对偶蹄动物具有高度传染性且造成经济损失的病毒性疾病。在本研究中，通过单质粒实现了口蹄疫病毒O型小泛素样修饰物（SUMO）融合衣壳蛋白的共表达，采用了最佳串联排列（VP0-VP3-VP1），蛋白产量接近1:1:1。在低水平蛋白酶活性（5个单位）下去除SUMO后，组装的口蹄疫病毒样颗粒（VLP）可暴露多个表位，且大小与天然口蹄疫病毒相似。用口蹄疫病毒VLP免疫猪可有效诱导口蹄疫病毒特异性体液免疫和细胞免疫反应，且呈剂量依赖性。这些数据表明，具有多个表位暴露的稳定口蹄疫病毒VLP对诱导猪的免疫反应有效，为口蹄疫病毒亚单位疫苗的进一步开发奠定了基础。
