RESUMEN
Infectious laryngotracheitis is an important respiratory disease of chickens that is caused by an alphaherpesvirus [infectious laryngotracheitis virus (ILTV); Gallid herpesvirus 1]. As herpesvirus envelope glycoproteins are main targets of the humoral host immune response, they are of particular interest for development of vaccines, as well as of diagnostic tools. The conserved, N-glycosylated envelope protein gC has been identified as a major surface antigen of ILTV. To study the function of gC, we now isolated a gC-deleted ILTV recombinant as well as a gC rescuant after co-transfection of permissive chicken cells with virion DNA and transfer plasmids containing engineered subgenomic fragments. Like other alphaherpesvirus homologues, ILTV gC proved to be non-essential for replication. ILTV-DeltagC exhibited delayed penetration kinetics and slightly reduced plaque sizes in cultured chicken cells, whereas virus titres were not reduced significantly compared with wild-type or gC-rescued virus. In vivo studies revealed that ILTV-DeltagC is attenuated in chickens. However, infection with high doses of ILTV-DeltagC was still fatal for approximately 20 % of the animals, whereas wild-type or gC-rescued ILTV led to 50 % mortality. Interestingly, innate and specific immune responses against ILTV-DeltagC were not reduced but enhanced, and surviving chickens were protected completely against challenge infection. Furthermore, ILTV-DeltagC might serve as a basis for marker vaccines permitting differentiation between vaccinated and field-virus-infected animals, as gC-specific antibodies could be detected easily in sera of animals infected with wild-type ILTV.
Asunto(s)
Herpesvirus Gallináceo 1/fisiología , Proteínas del Envoltorio Viral/fisiología , Animales , Pollos , Genoma Viral , Herpesvirus Gallináceo 1/genética , Herpesvirus Gallináceo 1/inmunología , Herpesvirus Gallináceo 1/patogenicidad , Proteínas del Envoltorio Viral/inmunología , Virulencia , Internalización del Virus , Replicación ViralRESUMEN
Recently, we described an infectious laryngotracheitis virus (ILTV, gallid herpesvirus 1) recombinant, which had been attenuated by deletion of the viral dUTPase gene UL50, and abundantly expressed the hemagglutinin (HA) gene of a H5N1 type highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) of Vietnamese origin. In the present study, efficacy of this vectored vaccine (ILTV-DeltaUL50IH5V) against different H5 HPAIV was evaluated in 6-week-old chickens. After a single ocular immunization all animals developed HA-specific antibodies, and were protected against lethal infection not only with the homologous HPAIV isolate A/duck/Vietnam/TG24-01/2005 (H5N1, clade 1, hemagglutinin amino acid sequence identity 100%), but also with heterologous HPAIV A/swan/Germany/R65/2006 (H5N1, clade 2.2, identity 96.1%) or HPAIV A/chicken/Italy/8/98 (H5N2, identity 93.8%). No symptoms of disease were observed after challenge with the H5N1 viruses, and only 20% of H5N2 challenged animals developed minimal clinical signs. Real-time RT-PCR analyses of oropharyngeal swabs revealed limited challenge virus replication, but the almost complete absence of HPAIV RNA from cloacal swabs indicated that no generalized infections occurred. Thus, unlike several previous vectors, ILTV-DeltaUL50IH5V was able to protect chickens against different HPAIV isolates of the H5 subtype. Vaccination with HA-expressing ILTV also allowed differentiation of immunized from AIV-infected animals by serological tests for antibodies against influenza virus nucleoprotein.
Asunto(s)
Glicoproteínas Hemaglutininas del Virus de la Influenza/inmunología , Herpesvirus Gallináceo 1/inmunología , Subtipo H5N1 del Virus de la Influenza A/inmunología , Vacunas contra la Influenza/inmunología , Gripe Aviar/prevención & control , Animales , Anticuerpos Antivirales/sangre , Pollos/inmunología , Pollos/virología , Ensayo de Inmunoadsorción Enzimática , Ojo/inmunología , Pruebas de Inhibición de Hemaglutinación , Herpesvirus Gallináceo 1/genética , Subtipo H5N1 del Virus de la Influenza A/genética , Subtipo H5N1 del Virus de la Influenza A/fisiología , Gripe Aviar/inmunología , Replicación ViralRESUMEN
Attenuated vaccine strains of the alphaherpesvirus causing infectious laryngotracheitis of chickens (ILTV, gallid herpesvirus 1) can be used for mass application. Previously, we showed that live virus vaccination with recombinant ILTV expressing hemagglutinin of highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAIV) protected chickens against ILT and fowl plague caused by HPAIV carrying the corresponding hemagglutinin subtypes [Lüschow D, Werner O, Mettenleiter TC, Fuchs W. Protection of chickens from lethal avian influenza A virus infection by live-virus vaccination with infectious laryngotracheitis virus recombinants expressing the hemagglutinin (H5) gene. Vaccine 2001;19(30):4249-59; Veits J, Lüschow D, Kindermann K, Werner O, Teifke JP, Mettenleiter TC, et al. Deletion of the non-essential UL0 gene of infectious laryngotracheitis (ILT) virus leads to attenuation in chickens, and UL0 mutants expressing influenza virus haemagglutinin (H7) protect against ILT and fowl plague. J Gen Virol 2003;84(12):3343-52]. However, protection against H5N1 HPAIV was not satisfactory. Therefore, a newly designed dUTPase-negative ILTV vector was used for rapid insertion of the H5-hemagglutinin, or N1-neuraminidase genes of a recent H5N1 HPAIV isolate. Compared to our previous constructs, protein expression was considerably enhanced by insertion of synthetic introns downstream of the human cytomegalovirus immediate-early promoter within the 5'-nontranslated region of the transgenes. Deletion of the viral dUTPase gene did not affect in vitro replication of the ILTV recombinants, but led to sufficient attenuation in vivo. After a single ocular immunization, all chickens developed H5- or N1-specific serum antibodies. Nevertheless, animals immunized with N1-ILTV died after subsequent H5N1 HPAIV challenge, although survival times were prolonged compared to non-vaccinated controls. In contrast, all chickens vaccinated with either H5-ILTV alone, or H5- and N1-ILTV simultaneously, survived without showing any clinical signs. Real-time RT-PCR indicated limited challenge virus replication after vaccination with H5-ILTV only, which was completely blocked after coimmunization with N1-ILTV. Thus, chickens can be protected from H5N1 HPAIV-induced disease by live vaccination with an attenuated hemagglutinin-expressing ILTV recombinant, and efficacy can be further increased by coadministration of an ILTV mutant expressing neuraminidase. Furthermore, chickens vaccinated with ILTV vectors can be easily differentiated from influenza virus-infected animals by the absence of serum antibodies against the AIV nucleoprotein.