Immunization with pseudotype baculovirus expressing envelope protein of Japanese encephalitis virus elicits protective immunity in mice

✍ Scribed by Yaoming Li; Jing Ye; Shengbo Cao; Shaobo Xiao; Qian Zhao; Xueqin Liu; Meilin Jin; Huanchun Chen

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 261 KB
• Volume: 11
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1099-498X
• DOI: 10.1002/jgm.1271

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Background

Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a serious infection and disease in southern and eastern Asia. The design and development of safer and more efficacious vaccines against Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a high‐priority target in the world. Recently, baculovirus pseudotyped with vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein (VSVG) was described as an attractive gene delivery vehicle in mammalian cells and a potential vector for vaccine development. In the present study, we constructed a recombinant pseudotype baculovirus encoding the JEV envelope (E) protein and demonstrated that it could elicit high protective immunity in mice.

Methods

Recombinant pseudotype baculovirus (BV‐G‐E) was generated by inserting JEV E gene fragment into pFastBac‐VSV/G vector. BALB/c mice were immunized with BV‐G‐E and challenged with JEV wild‐type strain. The neutralization antibody, interferon (IFN)‐γ expression and release, and survival rate were analysed and compared with the group of immunized with inactivated vaccine and DNA vaccine (pc‐E) encoding the same gene of JEV.

Results

We demonstrated that intramuscular injections of BV‐G‐E at various doses into mice produced higher levels of JEV‐specific neutralizing antibodies, IFN‐γ and better protective efficacy against a lethal challenge with JEV than that of pc‐E. Furthermore, BV‐G‐E could elicit a higher level of cellular immunity response and provide equal protective efficacy against JEV challenge compared to inactivated vaccine.

Conclusions

Our data demonstrate that BV‐G‐E elicited higher levels of protective immunity compared to DNA vaccine and that pseudotype baculovirus‐mediated gene delivery can be utilized as an alternative strategy to develop new generations of vaccines against JEV infection. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.