Development of a novel thermostable Newcastle disease virus vaccine vector for expression of a heterologous gene

Authors: WEN, GUOYUAN - Hubei Academy Of Agricultural Sciences; CHEN, CHEN - Hubei Academy Of Agricultural Sciences; GUO, JING - Hubei Academy Of Agricultural Sciences; ZHANG, ZHENYU - Northeast Agricultural University; SHANG, YU - Hubei Academy Of Agricultural Sciences; SHAO, HUABIN - Hubei Academy Of Agricultural Sciences; LUO, QINGPING - Hubei Academy Of Agricultural Sciences; YANG, JUN - Hubei Academy Of Agricultural Sciences; WANG, HONGLING - Hubei Academy Of Agricultural Sciences; WANG, HONGCAI - Hubei Academy Of Agricultural Sciences; ZHANG, TENGFEI - Hubei Academy Of Agricultural Sciences; ZHANG, RONGRONG - Hubei Academy Of Agricultural Sciences; CHENG, GUOFU - Huazhong Agricultural University; Yu, Qingzhong

Submitted to: Journal of General Virology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/20/2015
Publication Date: 6/12/2015
Publication URL: http://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/61395
Citation: Wen, G., Chen, C., Guo, J., Zhang, Z., Shang, Y., Shao, H., Luo, Q., Yang, J., Wang, H., Wang, H., Zhang, T., Zhang, R., Cheng, G., Yu, Q. 2015. Development of a novel thermostable Newcastle disease virus vaccine vector for expression of a heterologous gene. Journal of General Virology. 96:1219-1228. doi: 10.1099/vir.0.000067.

Interpretive Summary: Newcastle disease (ND), caused by infection of virulent Newcastle disease virus (NDV), is one of the most economically important infectious diseases of poultry. Control of ND by vaccination is the common strategy in both intensively raised commercial flocks and scavenging village flocks. However, the commonly used ND vaccine strains, such as LaSota and Hitchner B1, are not generally suitable in village flocks because of their thermo-instability and subsequent requirement of a cold chain for the delivery of viable vaccines to villages. In this study, we developed a thermostable NDV vaccine strain as a vector to deliver a foreign gene. The results showed that the recombinant NDV retained its thermostability, low virulence and growth ability as the parental virus, and also expressed the foreign gene product. Vaccination of chickens with the thermostable NDV recombinant vaccine provided complete clinical protection against virulent NDV challenge. The data suggested that this NDV recombinant could be used as a vaccine vector to develop bivalent thermostable vaccines against ND and the target avian diseases for village chickens, especially in the developing and least-developed countries.

Technical Abstract: The thermostable Newcastle disease virus (NDV) vaccines have been used widely to control Newcastle disease (ND) for village flocks, due to their independence of cold chains for delivery and storage. To explore the potential use of the thermostable NDV as a vaccine vector, an infectious clone of the thermostable avirulent NDV strain TS09-C was developed using reverse genetics technology. The green fluorescence protein (GFP) gene, along with the self-cleaving 2A gene of foot-and-mouth disease virus and Ubiquitin monomer (2AUbi), were inserted immediately upstream of the NP, M, or L gene translation start codon of the TS09-C infectious clone. Detection of GFP expression in the recombinant virus-infected cells showed that the recombinant virus, rTS-GFP/M, with the GFP inserted into the M gene expressed the highest level of GFP. The rTS-GFP/M virus retained the similar thermostability, growth ability, and pathogenicity as its parental rTS09-C virus. Vaccination of specific pathogen free (SPF) chickens with the rTS-GFP/M virus conferred complete protection against virulent NDV challenge. Taken together, the data suggested that the rTS09-C virus could be used as a vaccine vector to develop bivalent thermostable vaccines against ND and the target avian diseases for village chickens, especially in the developing and least-developed countries.