Enhanced Efficacy of Immunization with a Foot-and-Mouth Disease Multi-Epitope Subunit Vaccine Using Mannan-Decorated Inulin Microparticles

Evaluation of vaccine efficacy with 2B/T epitope conjugated porcine IgG-Fc recombinants against foot-and-mouth disease virus

The inactivated vaccine is effective in controlling foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), but it has drawbacks such as the need for a biosafety level 3 laboratory facility to handle live foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), high production costs, and biological safety risks. In response to these challenges, we developed a new recombinant protein vaccine (2BT-pIgG-Fc) containing porcine IgG-Fc to enhance protein stability in the body. This vaccine incorporates two-repeat B-cell and one-single T-cell epitope derived from O/Jincheon/SKR/2014. Our study confirmed that 2BT-pIgG-Fc and a commercial FMDV vaccine induced FMDV-specific antibodies in guinea pigs at 28 days post-vaccination. The percentage inhibition (PI) value of 2BT-pIgG-Fc was 90.43%, and the commercial FMDV vaccine was 81.75%. The PI value of 2BT-pIgG-Fc was 8.68% higher than that of commercial FMDV vaccine. In pigs, the primary target animals for FMDV, all five individuals produced FMDV-specific antibodies 42 days after vaccination with 2BT-pIgG-Fc. Furthermore, serum from 2BT-pIgG-Fc-vaccinated pigs exhibited neutralizing ability against FMDV infection. Intriguingly, the 2BT-pIgG-Fc recombinant demonstrated FMDV-specific antibody production rates and neutralization efficiency similar to commercial inactivated vaccines. This study illustrates the potential to enhance vaccine efficacy by strategically combining well-known antigenic domains in the development of recombinant protein-based vaccines.

A recombinant multi-epitope trivalent vaccine for foot-and-mouth disease virus serotype O in pigs

In order to develop a safe and effective broad-spectrum vaccine for foot-and-mouth disease (FMDV), here, we developed a recombinant FMD multiple-epitope trivalent vaccine based on three distinct topotypes of FMDV. Potency of the vaccine was evaluated by immune efficacy in pigs. The results showed that the vaccine with no less than 25 μg of antigen elicited FMDV serotype O specific antibodies and neutralization antibodies by primary-booster regime, and offered immune protection to pigs. More importantly, the vaccine elicited not only the same level of neutralization antibodies against the three distinct topotypes of FMDV, but also provided complete protection in pigs from the three corresponding virus challenge. None of the fully protected pigs were able to generate anti-3ABC antibodies throughout the experiment, which implied the vaccine can offer sterilizing immunity. The vaccine elicited lasting-long high-level antibodies and effectively protected pigs from virulent challenge within six months of immunization. Therefore, we consider that this vaccine may be used in the future for the prevention and control of FMD.

Design of a novel multi-epitope vaccine candidate against Chlamydia trachomatis using structural and nonstructural proteins: an immunoinformatics study

Chlamydia trachomatis (C. trachomatis) is an obligate intracellular bacterium which causes eye and sexually transmitted infections. During pregnancy, the bacterium is associated with preterm complications, low weight of neonates, fetal demise and endometritis leading to infertility. The aim of our study was design of a multi-epitope vaccine (MEV) candidate against C. trachomatis. After protein sequence adoption from the NCBI, potential epitopes toxicity, antigenicity, allergenicity, MHC-I and MHC-II binding, cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), Helper T lymphocytes (HTLs) and interferon-γ (IFN-γ)- induction were predicted. The adopted epitopes were fused together using appropriate linkers. In the next step, the MEV structural mapping and characterization, three-dimensional (3D) structure homology modeling and refinement were also performed. The MEV candidate interaction with the toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) was also docked. The immune responses simulation was assessed using the C-IMMSIM server. Molecular dynamic (MD) simulation verified the structural stability of the TLR4-MEV complex. The Molecular Mechanics Poisson-Boltzmann Surface Area (MMPBSA) approach demonstrated the MEV high affinity of binding to the TLR4, MHC-I and MHC-II. The MEV construct was also stable and water soluble and had enough antigenicity and lacked allergenicity with stimulation of T cells and B cells and INF-γ release. The immune simulation confirmed acceptable responses of both the humoral and cellular arms. It is proposed that in vitro and in vivo studies are needed to evaluate the findings of this study.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

Designing one-step reverse transcriptase loop-mediated isothermal amplification for serotype O foot-and-mouth disease virus detection during the 2022 outbreak in East Java, Indonesia

Background and Aim

Various methods can detect foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in cows, but they necessitate resources, time, costs, laboratory facilities, and specific clinical specimen submission, often leading to FMD virus (FMDV) diagnosis delays. The 2022 FMD outbreak in East Java, Indonesia, highlighted the need for an easy, inexpensive, rapid, and accurate detection approach. This study aims to devise a one-step reverse transcriptase loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) technique and phylogenetic analysis to detect the serotype O FMDV outbreak in East Java.

Materials and Methods

Swab samples were collected from the foot vesicles, nasal secretions, and saliva of five suspected FMDV-infected cows in East Java between June and July 2022. The RT-LAMP design used hydroxy naphthol blue dye or SYBR Green I dye, with confirmatory analysis through reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) targeting 249 base pairs. PCR products underwent purification, sequencing, and nucleotide alignment, followed by phylogenetic analysis.

Results

The RT-LAMP method using hydroxy naphthol blue dye displayed a positive reaction through a color shift from purple to blue in the tube. Naked-eye observation in standard light or ultraviolet (UV) light at 365 nm, with SYBR Green I stain, also revealed color change. Specifically, using SYBR Green I dye, UV light at 365 nm revealed a color shift from yellow to green, signifying a positive reaction. Nucleotide alignment revealed mutations and deletion at the 15th sequence in the JT-INDO-K3 isolate from the East Java FMDV outbreak. Despite differing branches, the phylogenetic tree placed it in the same cluster as serotype O FMDV from Malaysia and Mongolia.

Conclusion

JT-INDO-K3 exhibited distinctions from Indonesian serotype O FMDV isolates and those documented in GenBank. Then, the RT-LAMP method used in this study has a detection limit 10 times higher latter than the conventional RT-PCR limit, without any cross-reactivity among strains.

In vitro photodynamic therapy of methylene blue-loaded acetyl resistant starch nanoparticles

Background

Combination therapies comprising multiple methods, such as photodynamic therapy have been applied to be complements chemotherapy as they increase the therapeutic efficiency by enabling the intelligent drug delivery to target sites by exposing the photosensitizer to light and activating it in the tumor tissue. This study evaluated in vitro photodynamic therapy of methylene blue (MB)-loaded acetyl resistant starch (ARS) nanoparticles (NPs).

Methods

ARS was synthesized by the reaction between resistant starch (RS) and acetic anhydride. MB-loaded ARS NPs and ARS NPs were prepared by a single emulsion method. Synthesized ARS was measured by NMR. Prepared ARS NPs and MB-loaded ARS NPs were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), X-ray diffraction, UV/Vis, and circular dichroism (CD). MB-loaded ARS NPs were treated in mouse colon cancer cells (CT-26) and they were treated under near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation.

Results

Synthesis of ARS was confirmed by NMR and the degree of substitutions in the ARS was 7.1. The morphologies of ARS NPs observed by TEM were spherical shapes and the particle sizes of ARS NPs were 173.4 nm with a surface charge of − 17.24 mV. The d-spacing of ARS NPs was smaller than those of RS and the conformational changes of RS occurred by the formation of self-assembled polymeric NPs with induction of CD of the MB by chiral ARS NPs. The phototoxicity of CT-26 cells treated by MB-loaded ARS NPs dramatically decreased in a dose-dependent manner under NIR laser irradiation compared to free MB.

Conclusion

This study demonstrated the ordered nanosized structures in the ARS NPs and conformational change from random coil structure of RS to alpha-helices one of ARS occurred and CD of the achiral MB was induced. The MB-loaded ARS NPs showed a higher generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the CT-26 cells than free MB with the NIR laser irradiation and resulting in phototoxicity under irradiation.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40824-022-00273-7.

Modified mannan for 3D bioprinting: a potential novel bioink for tissue engineering

3D bioprinting technology displays many advantages for tissue engineering applications, but its utilization is limited by veryfew bioinks available for biofabrication. In this study, a novel type of bioink, which includes three methacryloyl modifiedmannans, was introduced to 3D bioprinting for tissue engineering applications. Yeast mannan (YM) was modified by reactingwith methacrylate anhydride (MA) at different concentrations, and three YM derived bioinks were obtained, which weretermed as YM-MA-1, YM-MA-2 and YM-MA-3 and were distinguished with different adjusted methacrylation degrees. TheYM derived bioink displayed an advantage that the mechanical properties of its photo-cured hydrogels can be enhanced withits methacrylation degree. Hence, YM derived bioinks are fitted for the mechanical requirements of most soft tissueengineering, including cartilage tissue engineering. By selecting chondrocytes as the testing cells, well cytocompatibility of YM-MA-1, YM-MA-2 had been confirmed by CCK-8 method. Following photo-crosslinking and implantation into SD rats for 4 weeks, thein vivobiocompatibility of the YM-MA-2 hydrogel is acceptable for tissue engineering applications. Hence, YM-MA-2 was chosen for 3D bioprinting. Our data demonstrated that hydrogel products with designed shape and living chondrocytes have been printed by applying YM-MA-2 as the bioink carrying chondrocytes. After the YM-MA-2 hydrogel with encapsulated chondrocytes was implanted subcutaneously in nude mice for 2 weeks, GAG and COLII secretion was confirmed by histological staining in YM-MA-2-H, indicating that the YM derived bioink can be potentially applied to tissue engineering by employing a 3D printer of stereolithography.

Mucosal Vaccine Delivery Using Mucoadhesive Polymer Particulate Systems

Vaccination has been recently attracted as one of the most successful medical treatments of the prevalence of many infectious diseases. Mucosal vaccination has been interested in many researchers because mucosal immune responses play part in the first line of defense against pathogens. However, mucosal vaccination should find out an efficient antigen delivery system because the antigen should be protected from degradation and clearance, it should be targeted to mucosal sites, and it should stimulate mucosal and systemic immunity. Accordingly, mucoadhesive polymeric particles among the polymeric particles have gained much attention because they can protect the antigen from degradation, prolong the residence time of the antigen at the target site, and control the release of the loaded vaccine, and results in induction of mucosal and systemic immune responses. In this review, we discuss advances in the development of several kinds of mucoadhesive polymeric particles for mucosal vaccine delivery.

Carbohydrate-based adjuvants

Carbohydrate adjuvants are safe and biocompatible compounds usable as sustained delivery systems and stimulants of ongoing humoral and cellular immune responses, being especially suitable for the development of vaccines against intracellular pathogens where alum is useless. The development of new adjuvants is difficult and expensive, however, in the last two years, seven new carbohydrate-based adjuvants have been patented, also there are twelve ongoing clinical trials of vaccines that contain carbohydrate-based adjuvants, as well as numerous publications on their mechanism of action and safety. More research is necessary to improve the existent adjuvants and develop innovative ones.