Bovine Herpesvirus-4 Based Vaccine Provides Protective Immunity against Streptococcus suis Disease in a Rabbit Model

Nihua Dong, Hester Nichols, Q Sun, Xiaojun Chen, Jiayang Zheng, Zhixin Guan, Hailong Zhang, Andrew Davison, Yvonne Wezel, Z Li, B Li, Ke Liu, Donghua Shao, Yafeng Qiu, J Sun, Xiangdong Li, Mathew Upton, Zhiyong Ma, Michael A. Jarvis*, Jianchao Wei*

*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

Streptococcus suis (S. suis) is a bacterial pathogen of pigs that has a major animal health and economic impact on the pig industry. Bovine herpesvirus-4 (BoHV-4) is a new virus-based vaccine vector that has been used for the immunogenic delivery of antigens from a variety of pathogens. In the present study, two recombinant BoHV-4-based vectors were evaluated for their ability to induce immunity and protection against S. suis in a rabbit model. The GMD protein is a fusion protein consisting of multiple dominant B-cell epitopes ((B-cell dominant epitopes of GAPDH, MRP, and DLDH antigens) (BoHV-4/GMD)) and the second suilysin (SLY) (BoHV-4/SLY) from S. suis serotype 2 (SS2). Both GMD and SLY delivered by the BoHV-4 vectors were recognized by sera from SS2-infected rabbits. The vaccination of rabbits with the BoHV-4 vectors induced antibodies against SS2, as well as against additional S. suis serotypes, SS7 and SS9. However, sera from BoHV-4/GMD-vaccinated animals promoted a significant level of phagocytic activity by pulmonary alveolar macrophages (PAMs) against SS2, SS7, and SS9. In contrast, sera from rabbits immunized with BoHV-4/SLY induced PAM phagocytic activity against only SS2. In addition, BoHV-4 vaccines differed in the associated level of protection against lethal SS2 challenge, which ranged from high (71.4%) to low (12.5%) for BoHV-4/GMD and BoHV-4/SLY, respectively. These data suggest BoHV-4/GMD as a promising vaccine candidate against S. suis disease.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages0
JournalVaccines
Volume11
Issue number5
Early online date20 May 2023
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 20 May 2023

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