Xie Zhenhua, Liu Yingnan, Di Dongdong, Liu Jingyi, Gong Lang, Chen Zongyan, Li Yao, Yu Wanqi, Lv Lu, Zhong Qiuping, Song Yingying, Liao Xinxin, Song Qingqing, Wang Heng, Chen Hongjun
Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), Shanghai, China.
Biosafety Research Center, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), Shanghai, China.
Front Microbiol. 2022 Jul 29;13:902932. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.902932. eCollection 2022.
African swine fever virus (ASFV) represents a serious threat to the global swine industry, and there are no safe or commercially available vaccines. Previous studies have demonstrated that inactivated vaccines do not provide sufficient protection against ASFV and that attenuated vaccines are effective, but raise safety concerns. Here, we first constructed a deletion mutant in which and gene clusters were knocked out. Based on the deletion mutant, a further deletion from the to genes was obtained. The five-genes knockout virus was designated as ASFV-ΔECM3. To investigate the efficacy and safety of the ASFV-ΔECM3 virus as a vaccine candidate, the evaluation of the virus was subsequently carried out in pigs. The results showed that the ASFV-ΔECM3 virus could induce homologous protection against the parental isolate, and no significant clinical signs or viremia were observed. These results show that the contiguous deletion mutant, ASFV-ΔECM3 encompassing the / and genes, could be a potential live-attenuated vaccine candidate for the prevention of ASFV infection.
非洲猪瘟病毒（ASFV）对全球养猪业构成严重威胁，且目前尚无安全的或可商业化的疫苗。先前的研究表明，灭活疫苗无法为抵御ASFV提供足够的保护，减毒疫苗虽有效，但存在安全隐患。在此，我们首先构建了一个缺失突变体，其中 和 基因簇被敲除。基于该缺失突变体，又获得了从 到 基因的进一步缺失。五基因敲除病毒被命名为ASFV-ΔECM3。为研究ASFV-ΔECM3病毒作为候选疫苗的有效性和安全性，随后在猪身上对该病毒进行了评估。结果显示，ASFV-ΔECM3病毒能够诱导针对亲本毒株的同源保护，且未观察到明显的临床症状或病毒血症。这些结果表明，包含 / 和 基因的连续缺失突变体ASFV-ΔECM3可能是预防ASFV感染的潜在减毒活疫苗候选株。
