Elsevier

Virus Research

Volume 223, 2 September 2016, Pages 206-212
Virus Research

Immunogenicity and protective efficacy of recombinant fusion proteins containing spike protein of infectious bronchitis virus and hemagglutinin of H3N2 influenza virus in chickens

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virusres.2016.07.010Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We generate fused S1 proteins with HA2 (rS1-HA2) or HA transmembrane domain and cytoplasmic tail (rS1-H3(TM)) of H3N2 influenza virus.

  • The two recombinant fusion proteins rS1-HA2 and rS1-H3(TM) are superior to rS1 protein in terms of immunogenicity and protective efficacy.

  • The strategy of fusing TMs or HA2 of HA proteins may provide a new strategy for development of high efficacy recombinant vaccine against IBV.

Abstract

Infectious bronchitis (IB) is an acute and highly contagious viral respiratory disease of chickens and vaccination is the main method for disease control. The S1 protein, which contains several virus neutralization epitopes, is considered to be a target site of vaccine development. However, although protective immune responses could be induced by recombinant S1 protein, the protection rate in chickens was still low (<50%). Here, we generated fused S1 proteins with HA2 protein (rS1-HA2) or transmembrane domain and cytoplasmic tail (rS1-H3(TM)) from hemagglutinin of H3N2 influenza virus. After immunization, animals vaccinated with fusion proteins rS1-HA2 and rS1-H3(TM) demonstrated stronger robust humoral and cellular immune responses than that of rS1 and inactivated M41 vaccine. The protection rates of groups immunized with rS1-HA2 (87%) were significantly higher than the groups inoculated with rS1 (47%) and inactivated M41 vaccine (53%). And chickens injected with rS1-H3(TM) had similar level of protection (73%) comparing to chickens vaccinated with rS1 (47%) (P = 0.07). Our data suggest that S1 protein fused to the HA2 or TM proteins from hemagglutinin of H3N2 influenza virus may provide a new strategy for high efficacy recombinant vaccine development against IBV.

Keywords

IBV
S1 protein
H3N2
Fusion proteins
Immunogenicity

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