Protective immunity against acute toxoplasmosis in BALB/c mice induced by a DNA vaccine encoding Toxoplasma gondii elongation factor 1-alpha

BMC Infectious Diseases

XiangRui Li¹  XiaoKai Song¹  RuoFeng Yan¹  LiXin Xu¹  Ibrahim Adam Hassan¹  Javaid Ali Gadahi¹  TingQi Liu¹  ZhenChao Zhang¹  XiaoNi Sun¹  YuJian Wang¹  Shuai Wang¹ 

[1]College of Veterinary Medicine, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, Jiangsu, PR China

关键词: Protective immunity;    DNA vaccine;    TgEF-1α;    Toxoplasma gondii;   

Others  :  1232852
DOI  :  10.1186/s12879-015-1220-5

 received in 2014-12-10, accepted in 2015-10-14,  发布年份 2015

【 摘 要 】

Background

Toxoplasma gondii can infect almost all warm-blood animals including human beings. The high incidence and severe damage that can be caused by T. gondii infection clearly indicates the need for the development of a vaccine. T. gondii elongation factor 1-alpha (TgEF-1α) plays an important role in pathogenesis and host cell invasion for this parasite. The aim of this study was to evaluate the immune protective efficacy of a DNA vaccine encoding TgEF-1α gene against acute T. gondii infection in mice.

Methods

A DNA vaccine (pVAX-EF-1α) encoding T. gondii EF-1a (TgEF-1α) gene was constructed and its immune response and protective efficacy against lethal challenge in BALB/c mice were evaluated.

Results

Mice inoculated with the pVAX-EF-1α vaccine had a high level of specific anti-T. gondii antibodies and produced high levels of IFN-gamma, interleukin (IL)-4, and IL-17. The expression levels of MHC-I and MHC-II molecules as well as the percentages of both CD4 ⁺and CD8 ⁺T cells in mice vaccinated with pVAX-EF-1α were significantly increased (p < 0.05), compared with those in all the mice from control groups (blank control, PBS, and pVAXI). Immunization with pVAX-EF-1α significantly (p < 0.05) prolonged mouse survival time to 14.1 ± 1.7 days after challenge infection with the virulent T. gondii RH strain, compared with mice in the control groups which died within 8 days.

Conclusions

DNA vaccination with pVAX-EF-1α triggered strong humoral and cellular responses and induced effective protection in mice against acute T. gondii infection, indicating that TgEF-1α is a promising vaccine candidate against acute toxoplasmosis.

【 授权许可】

   
2015 Wang et al.

【 图 表 】

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