Towards broadly protective polyvalent vaccines against hand,foot and mouth disease

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) caused by multiple enterovirus infections is a serious health threat to children in the Asia–Pacific region. This article reviews progresses in the development of vaccines for HFMD and discusses the need for polyvalent HFMD vaccines for conferring broad-spectrum protection.     

Advances in novel vaccines for foot and mouth disease: focus on recombinant empty capsids

Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious disease of cloven-hoofed animals, which causes severe economic losses in the livestock industry. Currently available vaccines are based on inactivated FMD virus (FMDV). Although inactivated virus vaccines have proved to be effective in FMD control, they have a number of disadvantages, including the need for high bio-containment production facilities and the lack of induction of immunological memory. Novel FMD vaccines based on the use of recombinant empty capsids have shown promising results. These recombinant empty capsids are attractive candidates because they avoid the use of virus in the production facilities but conserve its complete repertoire of conformational epitopes. However, many of these recombinant empty capsids require time-consuming procedures that are difficult to scale up. Achieving production of a novel and efficient FMD vaccine requires not only immunogenic antigens, but also industrially relevant processes. This review intends to summarize and compare the different strategies already published for the production of FMDV recombinant empty capsids, focusing on large-scale production.     

High expression level of a foot and mouth disease virus epitope in tobacco transplastomic plants

Chloroplast transformation has an extraordinary potential for antigen production in plants because of the capacity to accumulate high levels of recombinant proteins and increased biosafety due to maternal plastid inheritance in most crops. In this article, we evaluate tobacco chloroplasts transformation for the production of a highly immunogenic epitope containing amino acid residues 135–160 of the structural protein VP1 of the foot and mouth disease virus (FMDV). To increase the accumulation levels, the peptide was expressed as a fusion protein with the β-glucuronidase reporter gene (uidA). The recombinant protein represented the 51% of the total soluble proteins in mature leaves, a level higher than those of the Rubisco large subunit, the most abundant protein in the leaf of a wild-type plant. Despite this high accumulation of heterologous protein, the transplastomic plants and wild-type tobacco were phenotypically indistinguishable. The FMDV epitope expressed in transplastomic plants was immunogenic in mice. These results show that transplastomic tobacco express efficiently the recombinant protein, and we conclude that this technology allows the production of large quantities of immunogenic proteins.     

Development and characterization of monoclonal antibodies to foot and mouth disease virus type 'C'

Five fusion experiments were conducted with spleen cells from Balb/c mice immunized with purified 146S antigen of foot and mouth disease virus type 'C' (vaccine strain). Monoclones (31) thus developed were isotyped as IgM (3), IgG1 (6), IgG2a (5), IgG2b (3) and IgG3 (14). Eleven clones isotyped as IgM, IgG2a and IgG2b showed neutralizing activity in virus neutralization and plaque reduction tests. Six of the neutralizing clones precipitated 146S virus in Ouchterlony reaction. On the basis of location of MAb reactive epitopes in relation to intact virus (146S), 12S particles and VP1 in ELISA test, the clones were classified as Class II (6), Class III (11) and Class IV (14). These clones may be useful for purposes of antigen detection from field isolates and for estimation of antibody titres in vaccinated animals.     

Antibodies against a preselected peptide recognize and neutralize foot and mouth disease virus.

A major antibody combining site on foot and mouth disease virus (FMDV) serotype O1K has been identified in a predicted surface helix of viral protein 1 (VP1) between amino acid residues 144 and 159. A hexadecapeptide covering this sequence elicits high titers of antibodies that specifically recognize and neutralize FMDV. The high quality of the immune response is attributed to a particularly stable conformation of the antigenic amino acid sequence, which is most likely an alpha-helix.     

The pathogenicity of bovine strains of foot and mouth disease virus for impala and wildebeest.

Impala (Aepyceros melampus) and wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) were infected with bovine strains of foot and mouth disease virus by intradermolingual inoculation. No clinical signs developed in the impala but mild atypical lesions developed in the tongues of the wildebeest with generalized spread to one foot in two of the eight animals exposed. All the impala but only some of the wildebeest developed viraemia. No virus could be isolated from any tissues in either species after the 7th day following virus inoculation. Immune response occurred in both species. A field survey revealed few animals of either species with significant antibody titers and no virus 'carriers' were found.     

表达O型口蹄疫病毒 VP1基因的重组病毒BHV-1的构建与鉴定

摘要：【目的】为了构建表达口蹄疫病毒（O/China/99）VP1基因的牛疱疹病毒1型,将人工合成的口蹄疫病毒VP1基因插入到巨细胞病毒（CMV）启动子之下构建gE基因缺失转移载体。【方法】利用磷酸钙介导转染法将该转移载体与亲本病毒BHV-1/gE-/LacZ+的基因组DNA共转染牛鼻甲细胞后收获增殖的病毒。通过筛选白色病毒蚀斑,得到重组病毒BHV-1/gE-/VP1。【结果】PCR检测结果表明VP1基因已经插入到了重组病毒BHV-1/gE-的基因组中,间接免疫荧光试验和Western blot证实了BHV-1/gE-/VP1中的VP1基因在感染的细胞中获得了表达。【结论】本研究成功的构建了表达口蹄疫病毒VP1基因的重组病毒BHV-1/gE-/VP1,为研制口蹄疫及其他重要牛传染病的BHV-1病毒载体疫苗奠定了基础。     

表达O型口蹄疫病毒VPl基因的重组病毒BHV-1的构建与鉴定

[目的]为了构建表达口蹄疫病毒(O/china/99)VP1基因的牛疱疹病毒1型,将人工合成的口蹄疫病毒VP1基因插入到巨细胞病毒(CMV)启动子之下构建gE基因缺失转移载体.[方法]利用磷酸钙介导转染法将该转移载体与亲本病毒BHV-1/gE-/LacZ+的基因组DNA共转染牛鼻甲细胞后收获增殖的病毒.通过筛选白色病毒蚀斑,得到重组病毒BHV-1/gE-/VP1.[结果]PCR检测结果表明VP1基因已经插入到了重组病毒BHV-1/gE-的基因组中,间接免疫荧光试验和Westem blot证实了BHV-1/gE-/VP1中的VP1基因在感染的细胞中获得了表达.[结论]本研究成功地构建了表达口蹄疫病毒VP1基因的重组病毒BHV-1/gE-/VP1,为研制口蹄疫及其他重要牛传染病的BHV-1病毒载体疫苗奠定了基础.     

Single injection recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus vaccines protect ferrets against lethal Nipah virus disease

Background

Nipah virus (NiV) is a highly pathogenic zoonotic agent in the family Paramyxoviridae that is maintained in nature by bats. Outbreaks have occurred in Malaysia, Singapore, India, and Bangladesh and have been associated with 40 to 75% case fatality rates. There are currently no vaccines or postexposure treatments licensed for combating human NiV infection.

Methods and results

Four groups of ferrets received a single vaccination with different recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus vectors expressing: Group 1, control with no glycoprotein; Group 2, the NiV fusion protein (F); Group 3, the NiV attachment protein (G); and Group 4, a combination of the NiV F and G proteins. Animals were challenged intranasally with NiV 28 days after vaccination. Control ferrets in Group 1 showed characteristic clinical signs of NiV disease including respiratory distress, neurological disorders, viral load in blood and tissues, and gross lesions and antigen in target tissues; all animals in this group succumbed to infection by day 8. Importantly, all specifically vaccinated ferrets in Groups 2-4 showed no evidence of clinical illness and survived challenged. All animals in these groups developed anti-NiV F and/or G IgG and neutralizing antibody titers. While NiV RNA was detected in blood at day 6 post challenge in animals from Groups 2-4, the levels were orders of magnitude lower than animals from control Group 1.

Conclusions

These data show protective efficacy against NiV in a relevant model of human infection. Further development of this technology has the potential to yield effective single injection vaccines for NiV infection.

     

Primary structure of the A22 RNA polymerase gene of the foot and mouth disease virus

Complete nucleotide sequence of gene RNA polymerase for the foot-and-mouth disease virus subtype A22 has been determined.     

Evaluation of protective efficacy of recombinant subunit vaccines against simian immunodeficiency virus infection of macaques.

Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) was used as a model to study the protective efficacy of an immunization regimen currently being evaluated as candidate vaccines against HIV in human subjects. Four Macaca fascicularis were first immunized with recombinant vaccinia virus expressing the envelope glycoprotein gp160 of SIVmne and then boosted with subunit gp160. Both cell-mediated and humoral immune responses against SIV, including neutralizing antibodies, were elicited. The macaques were shown to be protected from a homologous virus infection as determined by serology, lymphocyte cocultivation, polymerase chain reactions and in vivo transmission analyses. Four unimmunized control animals were readily infected. However, viremia in infected control animals could decrease substantially following the initial phase of infection so that persistent infection might not be readily detectable.