Source: PURDUE UNIVERSITY submitted to NRP
REVERSE GENETICS-BASED INFECTIOUS BURSAL DISEASE VIRUS AS A VACCINE VECTOR FOR PROTECTION AGAINST AVIAN INFLUENZA AND OTHER EMERGING POULTRY VIRAL DISEASES
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0233795
Grant No.
(N/A)
Cumulative Award Amt.
(N/A)
Proposal No.
(N/A)
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Oct 1, 2013
Project End Date
Sep 30, 2018
Grant Year
(N/A)
Program Code
[(N/A)]- (N/A)
Recipient Organization
PURDUE UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
WEST LAFAYETTE,IN 47907
Performing Department
Veterinary Comparative Pathobiology
Non Technical Summary
Development of an effective vaccine or vaccination strategy is critical to provide protection of poultry against infectious diseases. The genome of infectious bursal disease (IBD) virus (IBDV) is small. A viral vector with small genome will minimize the interference with expression of the recombinant gene by expression of extraneous viral genes. Deletion of VP3 fragment from IBDV segment would render the IBDV replication incompetent. Replication-incompetent IBDV can be generated by reverse genetics and served as a vaccine vector. The IBDV vector can be utilized for a broad avian host range, including chickens and turkeys, since IBDV causes infection to these avian species. In addition, the replication-defective IBDV vector can provide protection against IBD and other emerging and economically important avian viral diseases, particularly avian influenza, in chickens and turkeys.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
3114030109030%
3113220110130%
3113230104030%
3114030116010%
Goals / Objectives
The long-term goal is to prevent and control infectious diseases of economic significance in the U.S. poultry industry. The immediate goal is to develop a reverse genetics-based infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) that can serve as a vaccine vector for protection against avian influenza (AI) and other emerging poultry viral diseases. The first goal is to generate reverse genetics-based IBDV vector to carry AI virus (AIV) hemagglutinin (HA) gene for conferring protection against AIV infection. Following that, reverse genetics-based IBDV vector will be used to carry the targeted protective antigen genes from other emerging and economically important poultry viral diseases. Specifically, the Objective 1 of the present proposal is to determine the pathogenicity and immunogenicity of VP3-deleted IBDV generated by reverse genetics in chickens; the Objective 2 is to determine the pathogenicity and immunogenicity of VP3-deleted IBDV generated by reverse genetics in turkeys; and the Objective 3 is to clone the HA gene or HA1 gene (HA gene subunit) of AIV into the reverse-genetics VP3-deleted IBDV and assess the pathogenicity, immunogenicity, and protection efficacy conferred by the reverse-genetics IBDV carrying AIV HA genes in chickens and turkeys, respectively.
Project Methods
For Objectives 1 and 2, a reverse genetics method developed in our laboratory will be used to generate VP3-deleted IBDV. A fragment of the VP3 structural gene from IBDV (strain VE) segment A will be deleted and substituted with the GFP reporter gene. The VP3-deleted mutant of reverse-genetics IBDV carrying GFP (GFP+.VP3-.IBDV) will be rescued in Vero cells. Specific-pathogen-free (SPF) chickens ( 3 weeks old) will be orally inoculated with 10 to the 5th or 7th embryo-infective dose (EID)50 GFP+.VP3-.IBDV to determine pathogenicity and immunogenicity of GFP+.VP3-.IBDV in chickens by examination of bursal histopathology, detection of GFP or IBDV VP2 by IFA, evaluation of IBDV viral RNA loads by real-time RT-PCR, assessment of humoral immune response to IBDV or GFP by ELISA or virus neutralization (VN) assay, and evaluation of of cytokine transcripts by real-time RT-PCR. Five week-old commercial large white turkeys will also be orally inoculated with GFP+.VP3-.IBDV to determine pathogenicity and immunogenicity of GFP+.VP3-.IBDV in turkeys. For Objective 3, the GFP reporter gene will be replaced by the hemagglutinin (HA) gene from a low pathogenicity avian influenza (LPAI) virus by subcloning HA gene into the VP3 deletion site. A reverse-genetics VP3-deleted IBDV carrying LPAI virus HA gene (HA+.VP3-.IBDV) will be recovered from the transfection of Vero cells with RNA transcripts from the segments A.HA+.VP3- and B clones. Similar approach will also be used to generate HA1+.VP3-.IBDV. Three-week-old SPF chickens or 1-week-old turkeys will be orally inoculated at day 1 and boosted at day 7 with 10 to the 5th or 7th EID50 HA+.VP3-.IBDV. At 14 days post inoculation (PI), one half of the chickens will be intra-ocularly or intra-tracheally challenged with AIV of the same H7 subtype as the parent LPAI virus isolate and the other half with sham virus. Five chickens will be taken from each treatment group and their tissues will be collected at 14, 21, and 35 days post challenge for assessment of vaccine protection. Cloacal swabs will be collected for virus re-isolation to assess virus shedding at those time intervals. In addition, various assays will be carried out: examination of bursae by histopathology, detection of IBDV VP2 or avian influenza virus (AIV) HA by IFA, evaluation of IBDV or AIV viral RNA loads by real-time RT-PCR, assessment of humoral immune response to IBDV or AIV by ELISA, VN, or hemagglutination inhibition (HI), and evaluation of cytokine transcripts by real-time RT-PCR. Similar protection efficacy studies will be also carried out for HA1+.VP3-.IBDV in chickens and turkeys.

Progress 10/01/13 to 09/30/18

Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences include layer and broiler farmers in Indiana, layer and broiler farmers in the U.S., poultry and allied industries in the U.S., and poultry health researchers in the U.S. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Research progress and up-to-date findings have been presented to and communicated with Indiana State Poultry Association, North Central Avian Diseases Conference, American Association of Avian Pathologists, and USDA National Committee 1180 on control of emerging and re-emerging avian respiratory diseases. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Different strategies to develop infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) as a vaccine vector were carried out by using reverse genetics approach. Replication incompetent IBDV vector was explored by replacing one of the viral genes, including vp2, vp3, vp1, or the polyprotein vp243 gene sequence with the green fluorescent protein (gfp) gene and providing the deleted viral protein in trans. Generation of a replication-competent IBDV vector was conducted by insertion of the gfp gene into vp243 open reading frame with a linker sequence between vp3 and gfp. To create another open reading frame in segment A, adding 1, 2, 3, 10, 20, 26, 40 or 56 nucleotide (s) after the vp243 stop codon was investigated. Expression of GFP protein from all the gfp-containing segment A/B constructs was confirmed by direct observation and immunofluorescence antibody assay (IFA) for GFP protein in transfected cells. Both replication-incompetent and replication-competent strategies did not produce IBDV that can express the GFP protein. Transfection of each of the gfp containing viral cDNA plasmids in IBDV-infected cells was performed and the collected IBDV did not contain the gfp-containing viral mRNA, indicating that the in cis packaging signals on the viral mRNA was not present in all the gfp-containing viral cDNAs. Replication-competent IBDVs were generated when there was extra 1, 2, 3, 10, 20, 26 or 40 nucleotides inserted between the vp243 open reading frame and the original 3' noncoding sequence but the plaque size reduced as the insertion number increased. Replication-incompetent IBDV particles were obtained when 56 nucleotides were inserted as the third open reading frame after vp243 sequence.

Publications


    Progress 10/01/16 to 09/30/17

    Outputs
    Target Audience:Target audiences include layer and broiler farmers in Indiana, layer and broiler farmers in the U.S., poultry and allied industries in the U.S., and poultry health researchers in the U.S. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Research progress and up-to-date findings have been presented to and communicated with Indiana State Poultry Association, North Central Avian Diseases Conference, American Association of Avian Pathologists, and USDA National Committee 1180 on control of emerging and re-emerging avian respiratory diseases. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Work will be planned to continue to study mechanisms of DNA or vector vaccination against infectious bursa disease virus (IBDV) infection, study the pathogenesis of IBDV infection, generate various reverse genetic based VP3-deleted IBDV mutants, and study the effects of molecular adjuvants on IBDV-based DNA or vector vaccination.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? Infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) has been established as a replication-competent viral vector capable of carrying an epitope at multiple loci in the genome. To enhance the safety and increase the insertion capacity of IBDV as a vector, a replication-incompetent IBDV vector was developed in the present study. The feasibility of replacing one of the viral gene loci, includingpvp2, vp3,vp1,or the polyproteinvp243, with the sequence of green fluorescent protein (GFP) was explored. A method combining TCID50and immunoperoxidase monolayer assay (IPMA) determined the most feasible locus for gene replacement to bepvp2. The genomic segment containinggfpat thepvp2locus was able to be encapsidated into IBDV particles. Furthermore, the expression of GFP in GFP-IBDV infected cells was confirmed by Western blotting and GFP-IBDV particles showed similar morphology and size to that of wildtype IBDV by electron microscopy. By providing the deleted proteinin transin a packaging cell line (pVP2-DF1), replication-incompetent GFP-IBDV particles were successfully plaque-quantified. Thegfp sequence from the plaque-forming GFP-IBDV in pVP2-DF1 was confirmed by RT-PCR and sequencing. GFP-IBDV developed in the present study is a replication-incompetent IBDV vector which expresses a foreign protein in infected cells without the capability to produce viral progeny. Additionally, such replication-incompetent IBDV vectors could serve as bivalent vaccine vectors for conferring protection against infections with IBDV and other economically important, or zoonotic, avian pathogens.

    Publications

    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Mosley, Y-Y. C., Wu, C.C., and Lin, T.L. 2017. Infectious bursal disease virus as a replication-incompetent viral vector expressing green fluorescent protein. Archives of Virology, 162: 23-32.


    Progress 10/01/15 to 09/30/16

    Outputs
    Target Audience:Target audiences include layer and broiler farmers in Indiana, layer and broiler farmers in the U.S., poultry and allied industries in the U.S., and poultry health researchers in the U.S. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Research progress and up-to-date findings have been presented to and communicated with Indiana State Poultry Association, North Central Avian Diseases Conference, American Association of Avian Pathologists, and USDA National Committee 1180 on control of emerging and re-emerging avian respiratory diseases. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Work will be planned to continue to study mechanisms of DNA or vector vaccination against infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) infection, study the pathogenesis of IBDV infection, generate various reverse genetics based VP3-deleted IBDV mutants, and study the effects of molecular adjuvants on IBDV-based DNA or vector vaccination.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? Studies were conducted to determine functional genomics of chicken innate immune cytosolic sensor nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain like receptor pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome. RNA was extracted from chicken macrophage cell line HD11 cells or bursa of Fabricius, reversely transcribed to cDNA, and subjected to PCR amplification of chicken NLRP3. The PCR amplicons were cloned and sequenced. The expression level of NLRP3 in various chicken tissues was determined by SyBr Green-based chicken NLRP3-specific real-time RT-PCR. Functional characterization of NLRP3 was determined by 12-hour lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and additional 15-minute ATP stimulation of HD11 cells or HD11 cells with knockdown of chicken NLRP3 by small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting chicken NLRP3. Chicken IL-1β levels in the cell culture supernatants were analyzed and determined by Western Blotting. The chicken NLRP3 has an open reading frame encompassing 2778 base pairs of nucleotides and encoding a protein of 925 amino acids. There is one pyrin domain (PYD) in the N-terminal region and leucine-rich repeat domain (LRR) in C-terminal region. The domain architecture is conserved among NLRP3 paralogues. Chicken NLRP3 is phylogenetically different from mammalian counterpart. The highest mRNA levels of chicken NLRP3 were present in kidney, bursa and spleen at 9.4x1010, 9.33x1010 and 8.57x1010 (copy number/µl), respectively. Production of mature chicken IL-1β was detected on the Western blots from the supernatants of HD11 cells stimulated with LPS for 12 hours. Increased amounts of chicken IL-1β were detected in the supernatants of HD11 cells, following stimulation with LPS for 12 hours and exposure to ATP for additional 15 minutes. Production of mature chicken IL-1β was partially abrogated or decreased in the supernatants of chicken NLRP3-knockdown HD11 cells stimulated with LPS and ATP. The result indicated that chicken tissues possess NLRP3, encompassing 2778 base pairs of nucleotides and encoding for 925 amino acids. Chicken NLRP3 is phylogenetically different from mammalian NLRP3. Chicken NLRP3 is ubiquitously expressed in chicken tissues. In addition, chicken NLRP3 functions as a cytosolic sensor for LPS and ATP and production and activation of mature chicken IL-1β is chicken NLRP3 dependent.

    Publications

    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Mosley, Y-Y. C., Wu, C.C., and Lin, T.L. 2016. IBDV particles packaged only segment A. Virology, 488: 68-72.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Mosley, Y-Y. C., Wu, C.C., and Lin, T.L. 2015. Avian viral vector vaccines for infectious bursal disease. Taiwan Veterinary Journal, 41: 153-163.


    Progress 10/01/14 to 09/30/15

    Outputs
    Target Audience:Target audiences include layer and broiler farmers in Indiana, layer and broiler farmers in the U.S., poultry and allied industries in the U.S., and poultry health researchers in the U.S. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Research progress and up-to-date findings have been presented to and communicated with Indiana State Poultry Association, North Central Avian Diseases Conference, American Association of Avian Pathologists, and USDA National Committee 1180 on control of emerging and re-emerging avian respiratory diseases. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Work will be planned to continue to study mechanisms of DNA or vector vacciantion againstinfectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) infection andgenerate various reverse genetics basedVP3-deleted IBDV mutants.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? During infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) infection in cultured macrophages (HD11 cells), IBDV infection induced significantly upregulated (p<0.05) expression levels of chicken (ch) melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 (MDA5), interferon-β (IFN-β), dsRNA dependent protein kinase (PKR), 2', 5'-oligoadenylate synthetase (OAS), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC class I) up to 59, 693, 4, 286, 5, 146, 4, 4, 15 and 4 folds, respectively. Nitric oxide productions in the culture supernatants increased significantly (p<0.05) up to 6.5 μM at 24 hpi. ChMDA5-knockdown HD11 cells had significantly higher (p<0.05) IBDV RNA loads at 24 hpi and significantly lower (p<0.05) nitric oxide productions and expression levels of chMDA5, IFN-β, PKR, OAS, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-12(p40), IL-18, IL-10, iNOS, MHC class I and CD86 at 24 hpi. In addition, chMDA5-overexpressed HD11 cells had significantly reduced (p<0.05) IBDV titers and RNA loads and significantly enhanced (p<0.05) nitric oxide productions at 16 and 24 hpi. They also had significantly higher (p<0.05) expression levels of chMDA5, IFN-β, PKR, OAS, Mx, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-12(p40), IL-10 and iNOS at 2 hpi. The results indicated that chMDA5 sensed IBDV infection in chicken macrophages and was associated with IBDV-induced expression of IFN-β and initiation of innate immune response, which bridged to activate adaptive immune response and limited IBDV replication. In another study, infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) polyprotein gene-based DNA (VP243/pcDNA) fused with avian influenza virus (AIV) hemagglutinin (HA) gene, VP243-HA/pcDNA, was constructed. One-day-old specific pathogen free (SPF) chickens were intramuscularly injected with 500 μg of constructed DNA weekly for three times, followed by a two-week interval for the fourth injection. Chickens inoculated with VP243/pcDNA had significantly higher (p<0.05) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) titer to IBDV than those with VP243-HA/pcDNA 3 to 6 weeks after the first inoculation. The hemagglutination inhibition (HI) titers to AIV were significantly higher (p<0.05) in chickens inoculated with HA/pcDNA than those with VP243-HA/pcDNA 2 to 6 weeks after the first inoculation. The results indicated that a single plasmid construct carrying IBDV VP243 gene-based DNA fused with AIV HA gene can elicit specific antibody responses to both IBDV and AIV by DNA vaccination.

    Publications

    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Lee, C.C., Wu, C.C., and Lin, T.L. 2015. Bursal transcriptome of chickens protected by DNA vaccination versus those challenged with infectious bursal disease virus Archives of Virology, 160: 69-80. Mosley, Y-Y. C., Wu, C.C., and Lin, T.L. 2015. Eliciting specific humoral immunity from a plasmid DNA encoding infectious bursal disease virus polyprotein gene fused with avian influenza virus hemagglutinin gene. Journal of Virological Methods, 211: 3642.


    Progress 10/01/13 to 09/30/14

    Outputs
    Target Audience: Target audiences include layer and broiler farmers in Indiana, layer and broiler farmers in the U.S., poultry allied industries in the U.S., and poultry health researchers in the U.S. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Research progress and up-to-date findings have been presented to and communicated with Indiana State Poultry Association, North Central Avian Diseases Conference, American Association of Avian Pathologists, and USDA National Committee 1180 on control of emerging and re-emerging avian respiratory diseases. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Work will be planned to study the mechanisms of DNA vaccination against infectious bursal disease (IBD) by transcriptomic analysis of spleen. In addition, VP3-deleted infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) mutants will be generated by reverse genetics.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? One-day-old specific-pathogen-free chickens were intramuscularly vaccinated with infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) large segment protein expressing DNA weekly for three times to study mechanisms of DNA-mediated vaccination against infectious bursal disease (IBD) by transcriptomic analysis of bursa. Chickens were orally challenged with IBDV strain variant E (VE) one week after the last vaccination. Bursae collected at 12 and 24 hours post challenge (hpc) and 3, 5, 7, and 10 days post challenge (dpc) were subjected to real-time RT-PCR quantification of bursal transcripts. Among the genes examined, only granzyme K showed significant (p<0.05) upregulation in DNA-vaccinated chickens upon IBDV challenge. Bursal transcripts related to innate immunity and inflammation, including TLR3, MDA5, IFN-a, IFN-b, IRF-1, IRF-10, IL-1b, IL-6, IL-8, iNOS, granzyme A, granzyme K and IL-10, were upregulated or significantly (p<0.05) upregulated at 3 dpc and later in chickens challenged with IBDV. The expression of genes related to immune cell regulation, apoptosis and glucose transport, including CD4, CD8, IL-2, IFN-g, IL-12(p40), IL-18, GM-CSF, GATA-3, p53, glucose transporter-2 (GLUT-2) and GLUT-3 showed upregulation or significant (p<0.05) upregulation at 3 dpc and later in chickens challenged with IBDV. The results indicated that bursal transcriptome involved in innate immunity, inflammation, immune cell regulation, apoptosis and glucose transport, except for granzyme K, was differentially expressed but not enhanced in chickens protected by DNA vaccination against IBDV challenge.

    Publications

    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Lee, C.H., Wu, C.C., and Lin, T.L. 2014. Chicken melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 (MDA5) recognizes infectious bursal disease virus infection and triggers MDA5-related innate immunity. Archives of Virology, 159 (7): 1671-1686.