Expression of the Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus VP1 protein using a replication-competent recombinant canine adenovirus type 2 elicits a humoral antibody response in a porcine model

An Oil-Based Adjuvant Improves Immune Responses Induced by Canine Adenovirus-Vectored Vaccine in Mice

There is a significant need for highly effective vaccines against emerging and common veterinary infectious diseases. Canine adenovirus type 2 (CAV2) vectors allow rapid development of multiple vaccines and have demonstrated their potential in animal models. In this study, we compared the immunogenicity of a non-replicating CAV2 vector encoding the rabies virus glycoprotein with and without MontanideTM ISA 201 VG, an oil-based adjuvant. All vaccinated mice rapidly achieved rabies seroconversion, which was associated with complete vaccine protection. The adjuvant increased rabies antibody titers without any significant effect on the anti-CAV2 serological responses. An RT2 Profiler™ PCR array was conducted to identify host antiviral genes modulated in the blood samples 24 h after vaccination. Functional analysis of differentially expressed genes revealed the up-regulation of the RIG-I, TLRs, NLRs, and IFNs signaling pathways. These results demonstrate that a water-in-oil-in-water adjuvant can shape the immune responses to an antigen encoded by an adenovirus, thereby enhancing the protection conferred by live recombinant vaccines. The characterization of early vaccine responses provides a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the efficacy of CAV2-vectored vaccines.

Sensitive real-time on-line estimator for oxygen transfer rates in fermenters

Recombinant Escherichia coli grown in large-scale fermenters are used extensively to produce plasmids and biopharmaceuticals. One method commonly used to control culture growth is predefined glucose feeding, often an exponential feeding profile. Predefined feeding profiles cannot adjust automatically to metabolic state changes, such as the metabolic burden associated with recombinant protein expression or high-cell density associated stresses. As the culture oxygen consumption rates indicates a culture's metabolic state, there exist several methods to estimate the oxygen uptake rate (OUR). These common OUR methods have limited application since these approaches either disrupt the oxygen supply, rely on empirical relationships, or are unable to account for latency and filtering effects. In this study, an oxygen transfer rate (OTR) estimator was developed to aid OUR prediction. This non-disruptive OTR estimator uses the dissolved oxygen and the off-gas oxygen concentration, in parallel. This new OTR estimator captures small variations in OTR due to physical and chemical manipulations of the fermenter, such as in stir speed variation, glucose feeding rate change, and recombinant protein expression. Due its sensitivity, this non-disruptive real-time OTR estimator could be integrated with feed control algorithms to maintain the metabolic state of a culture to a desired setpoint.

Foot-and-mouth disease vaccines: recent updates and future perspectives

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a major worldwide viral disease in animals, affecting the national and international trade of livestock and animal products and leading to high economic losses and social consequences. Effective control measures of FMD involve prevention through vaccination with inactivated vaccines. These inactivated vaccines, unfortunately, require short-term protection and cold-chain and high-containment facilities. Major advances and pursuit of hot topics in vaccinology and vectorology are ongoing, involving peptide vaccines, DNA vaccines, live vector vaccines, and novel attenuated vaccines. DIVA capability and marker vaccines are very important in differentiating infected animals from vaccinated animals. This review focuses on updating the research progress of these novel vaccines, summarizing their merits and including ideas for improvement.

Challenges of Generating and Maintaining Protective Vaccine-Induced Immune Responses for Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus in Pigs

Vaccination can play a central role in the control of outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) by reducing both the impact of clinical disease and the extent of virus transmission between susceptible animals. Recent incursions of exotic FMD virus lineages into several East Asian countries have highlighted the difficulties of generating and maintaining an adequate immune response in vaccinated pigs. Factors that impact vaccine performance include (i) the potency, antigenic payload, and formulation of a vaccine; (ii) the antigenic match between the vaccine and the heterologous circulating field strain; and (iii) the regime (timing, frequency, and herd-level coverage) used to administer the vaccine. This review collates data from studies that have evaluated the performance of foot-and-mouth disease virus vaccines at the individual and population level in pigs and identifies research priorities that could provide new insights to improve vaccination in the future.

A simplified system for generating recombinant E3-deleted canine adenovirus-2

Canine adenovirus type 2 (CAV-2) has been used extensively as a vector for studying gene therapy and vaccine applications. We describe a simple strategy for generating a replication-competent recombinant CAV-2 using a backbone vector and a shuttle vector. The backbone plasmid containing the full-length CAV-2 genome was constructed by homologous recombination in Escherichia coli strain BJ5183. The shuttle plasmid, which has a deletion of 1478 bp in the nonessential E3 viral genome region, was generated by subcloning a fusion fragment containing the flanking sequences of the CAV-2 E3 region and expression cassette sequences from pcDNA3.1(+) into modified pUC18. To determine system effectiveness, a gene for enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) was inserted into the shuttle plasmid and cloned into the backbone plasmid using two unique NruI and SalI sites. Transfection of Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells with the recombinant adenovirus genome containing the EGFP expression cassette resulted in infectious viral particles. This strategy provides a solid foundation for developing candidate vaccines using CAV-2 as a delivery vector.

Dynamic transcriptional response of Escherichia coli to inclusion body formation

Escherichia coli is used intensively for recombinant protein production, but one key challenge with recombinant E. coli is the tendency of recombinant proteins to misfold and aggregate into insoluble inclusion bodies (IBs). IBs contain high concentrations of inactive recombinant protein that require recovery steps to salvage a functional recombinant protein. Currently, no universally effective method exists to prevent IB formation in recombinant E. coli. In this study, DNA microarrays were used to compare the E. coli gene expression response dynamics to soluble and insoluble recombinant protein production. As expected and previously reported, the classical heat-shock genes had increased expression due to IB formation, including protein folding chaperones and proteases. Gene expression levels for protein synthesis-related and energy-synthesis pathways were also increased. Many transmembrane transporter and corresponding catabolic pathways genes had decreased expression for substrates not present in the culture medium. Additionally, putative genes represented over one-third of the genes identified to have significant expression changes due to IB formation, indicating many important cellular responses to IB formation still need to be characterized. Interestingly, cells grown in 3% ethanol had significantly reduced gene expression responses due to IB formation. Taken together, these results indicate that IB formation is complex, stimulates the heat-shock response, increases protein and energy synthesis needs, and streamlines transport and catabolic processes, while ethanol diminished all of these responses.

A CMI (cell metabolic indicator)-based controller for achieving high growth rate Escherichia coli cultures

A large fraction of biopharmaceuticals are produced in Escherichia coli, where each new product and strain currently requires a high degree of growth characterization in benchtop and industrial bioreactors to achieve economical production protocols. The capability to use a standard set of sensors to characterize a system quickly without the need to conduct numerous experiments to determine stable growth rate for the strain would significantly decrease development time. This paper presents a cell metabolic indicator (CMI) which provides better insight into the E. coli metabolism than a growth rate value. The CMI is the ratio of the oxygen uptake rate (OUR) of the culture and the base addition rate (BAR) required to keep pH at a desired setpoint. The OUR and BAR are measured using a off-gas sensor and pH probe, respectively, and thus the CMI can be computed online. Experimental results demonstrate the relationship between CMI and the different cell metabolic states. A previously published model is augmented with acid production dynamics, allowing for comparison of the CMI-based controller with an open-loop controller in simulation. The CMI-based controller required little a priori knowledge about the E. coli strain in order to achieve a high growth rate. Since many different types of cells exhibit similar behaviors, the CMI concept can be extended to mammalian and stem cells.

The effects of protein solubility on the RNA Integrity Number (RIN) for recombinant Escherichia coli

High quality, intact messenger RNA (mRNA) is required for DNA microarray and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction analysis and is generally obtained from total RNA isolations. The most widely recognized measure of RNA integrity is the RNA Integrity Number (RIN) obtained from the Agilent Bioanalyzer, as it provides sizing, quantification, and quality control measures. This work describes comparisons of the RIN values obtained for recombinant E. coli. Uninduced recombinant E. coli cultures were examined, as well as induced cultures that produced either a soluble or insoluble recombinant protein. The uninduced cultures and the induced cultures producing soluble protein had higher RIN values than the induced cultures producing insoluble protein. These lower RIN values for E. coli producing the insoluble protein indicate that cellular degradation of the ribosomal RNA species is the likely cause of the lower RIN values. As the use of DNA microarrays and other gene expression tools increase in usage in the industrial recombinant protein production community, these results suggest the need for further studies to determine acceptable RIN ranges for gene expression analysis and effects of various culture conditions on RIN values for recombinant E. coli.

Immune responses in pigs induced by recombinant canine adenovirus 2 expressing the glycoprotein 5 of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus

To develop a new type vaccine for porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) prevention by using canine adenovirus 2(CAV-2) as vector, the Glycoprotein 5(GP5) gene from PRRSV strain JL was amplified by RT-PCR, and the expression cassette of GP5 was constructed using the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) promoter and the simian virus 40 (SV40) early mRNA polyadenylation signal. The expression cassette of Glycoprotein 5 was cloned into the CAV-2 genome in which E3 region had been partly deleted, and the recombinant virus (CAV-2-GP5) was obtained by transfecting the recombinant CAV-2-GP5 genome into MDCK cells together with Lipofectamine 2000. Immunization trial in pigs with the recombinant virus CAV-2-GP5 showed that CAV-2-GP5 could stimulate a specific immune response to PRRSV. Immune response to the GP5 and PRRSV was confirmed by ELISA, neutralization test and lymphocyte proliferative responses, and western blotting confirmed expression of GP5 by the vector in cells. These results indicated that CAV-2 may serve as a vector for development of PRRSV vaccine in pigs, and the CAV-2-GP5 might be a candidate vaccine to be tested for preventing PRRSV infection.

Antigen delivery systems for veterinary vaccine development. Viral-vector based delivery systems

The recent advances in molecular genetics, pathogenesis and immunology have provided an optimal framework for developing novel approaches in the rational design of vaccines effective against viral epizootic diseases. This paper reviews most of the viral-vector based antigen delivery systems (ADSs) recently developed for vaccine testing in veterinary species, including attenuated virus and DNA and RNA viral vectors. Besides their usefulness in vaccinology, these ADSs constitute invaluable tools to researchers for understanding the nature of protective responses in different species, opening the possibility of modulating or potentiating relevant immune mechanisms involved in protection.

Targeting the porcine immune system--particulate vaccines in the 21st century

During the last decade, the propagation of immunological knowledge describing the critical role of dendritic cells (DC) in the induction of efficacious immune responses has promoted research and development of vaccines systematically targeting DC. Based on the promise for the rational design of vaccine platforms, the current review will provide an update on particle-based vaccines of both viral and synthetic origin, giving examples of recombinant virus carriers such as adenoviruses and biodegradable particulate carriers. The viral carriers carry pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMP), used by the original virus for targeting DC, and are particularly efficient and versatile gene delivery vectors. Efforts in the field of synthetic vaccine carriers are focussing on decorating the particle surface with ligands for DC receptors such as heparan sulphate glycosaminoglycan structures, integrins, Siglecs, galectins, C-type lectins and toll-like receptors. The emphasis of this review will be placed on targeting the porcine immune system, but reference will be made to advances with murine and human vaccine delivery systems where information on DC targeting is available.

Efficacy and safety of a live canine adenovirus-vectored rabies virus vaccine in swine

Rabies infections in swine have been reported occasionally in recent years in certain geographic locations. Although a protective vaccine consisting of inactivated rabies virus is available for use in swine, searching for a more economically viable formulation for use in developing countries is always a priority. This work describes the testing of a canine adenovirus that expresses a rabies viral epitope (CAV-2-E3Delta-RGP) in a porcine rabies model. The data presented here show that the recombinant viral vaccine was effective in protecting swine against rabies if administered intramuscularly, but not orally or intranasally, and that protection was probably related to the development of a humoral response that lasted at least 28 weeks. Following vaccination, no behavioral abnormalities were observed in vaccinated swine and virus particles were not detected in either tissues or body fluids, indicating that this formulation was safe. The recombinant virus stimulated an effective level of antibody response in the immunized swine after a single intramuscular inoculation.

Complete protection of cats against feline panleukopenia virus challenge by a recombinant canine adenovirus type 2 expressing VP2 from FPV

Feline panleukopenia virus (FPV) is an important infectious pathogen of all members of the family Felidae. Here, we describe construction of a replication-competent recombinant canine adenovirus type 2 (CAV-2) expressing the VP2 protein of FPV (CAV-2-VP2) by transfection of MDCK cells with recombinant CAV-2 genome carrying a VP2 expression cassette. Ten 3-month-old cats were vaccinated with the recombinant virus with two boosters at 15-day intervals. All cats developed neutralizing antibodies of titers 1:16-1:32 by day 15 post-primary vaccination, increasing to 1:64-1:128 by day 45. Examination for clinical signs and viral presence, and total white blood cell counts in peripheral blood following FPV challenge, showed that all were completely protected. This recombinant virus appears to provide an effective alternative to attenuated and inactivated vaccines in immunizing cats against feline panleukopenia.