Wagner Bettina, Schnabel Christiane L, Rollins Alicia
Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Vaccines (Basel). 2025 Mar 10;13(3):290. doi: 10.3390/vaccines13030290.
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Equine herpesvirus type-1 (EHV-1) enters through the upper respiratory tract (URT) and causes respiratory disease, abortions, and myeloencephalopathy in equids. Pre-existing immunity at the viral entry site, especially mucosal IgG4/7 antibodies, has recently been shown to correlate with protection from disease and incomplete viral replication at the URT. Here, we tested whether intramuscular (i.m.) vaccination with a commercial inactivated EHV-1/4 vaccine can induce mucosal antibodies (mucAbs) at the URT.
Adult horses with complete EHV-1 vaccination and/or exposure histories were vaccinated i.m. six times within eight months. Before and after each vaccination, blood and nasal swab samples were obtained. Serum and mucAbs were measured in fluorescent bead-based EHV-1 assays.
All horses still had existing EHV-1 specific serum and mucAbs prior to vaccination, which were mainly composed of IgG4/7 antibody isotypes. Serum IgG4/7 significantly increased after the first vaccination and stayed high until the end of the study. An additional short-lasting serum IgG1 response was only induced by the first vaccine application. At the URT, mucAbs increased after five out of six i.m. vaccine injections. Like the systemic antibody response, mucAbs were dominated by IgG4/7 and a small IgG1 increase after the first vaccination.
Our data emphasize that robust EHV-1 specific mucAb levels are obtained after i.m. vaccination with the inactivated EHV-1/4 vaccine used here. The findings have important implications for evaluating EHV-1/4 vaccines for their ability to induce and maintain protective mucosal IgG4/7 antibodies.
背景/目的：1型马疱疹病毒（EHV-1）通过上呼吸道（URT）进入机体，可导致马属动物发生呼吸道疾病、流产和脑脊髓炎。最近研究表明，病毒进入部位的预先存在的免疫力，尤其是黏膜IgG4/7抗体，与预防疾病以及上呼吸道病毒复制不完全相关。在此，我们测试了肌肉注射市售灭活EHV-1/4疫苗是否能在上呼吸道诱导产生黏膜抗体（mucAbs）。
对有完整EHV-1疫苗接种和/或暴露史的成年马在8个月内进行6次肌肉注射疫苗。每次接种前后采集血液和鼻拭子样本。采用基于荧光微球的EHV-1检测方法测定血清和黏膜抗体。
所有马匹在接种疫苗前仍存在EHV-1特异性血清抗体和黏膜抗体，主要由IgG4/7抗体亚型组成。首次接种后血清IgG4/7显著增加，并在研究结束前一直保持在较高水平。仅首次接种疫苗诱导产生了额外的短暂血清IgG1反应。在上呼吸道，6次肌肉注射疫苗中有5次注射后黏膜抗体增加。与全身抗体反应一样，黏膜抗体以IgG4/7为主，首次接种后IgG1略有增加。
我们的数据强调，使用此处的灭活EHV-1/4疫苗进行肌肉注射后可获得强大的EHV-1特异性黏膜抗体水平。这些发现对于评估EHV-1/4疫苗诱导和维持保护性黏膜IgG4/7抗体的能力具有重要意义。
