Evaluation of Montanide ISA 71 VG adjuvant during profilin vaccination against experimental coccidiosis

Authors: JANG, SEUNG - Research Institute Of Health And Environment; Kim, Duk Kyung; Lillehoj, Hyun; Lee, Sung; LEE, KYUNG - Animal, Plant And Fisheries Quarantine And Inspection Agency (QIA); BERTRAND, FRANCOIS - Seppic, Inc; DUPUIS, LAURENT - Seppic, Inc; DEVILLE, SEBASTIEN - Seppic, Inc; AROUS, JULIETTE - Seppic, Inc; LILLEHOJ, ERIK - University Of Maryland

Submitted to: PLOS ONE
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/15/2013
Publication Date: 11/29/2013
Publication URL: http://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/56648
Citation: Jang, S.I., Kim, D., Lillehoj, H.S., Lee, S.H., Lee, K.W., Bertrand, F., Dupuis, L., Deville, S., Arous, J.B., Lillehoj, E.P. 2013. Evaluation of Montanide ISA 71 VG adjuvant during profilin vaccination against experimental coccidiosis. PLoS One. 8(4):e59786. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0059786.

Interpretive Summary: Avian coccidiosis is one of the most costly infectious diseases affecting the commercial poultry industry. These apicomplexan parasites invade cells of the intestinal epithelium, evoking necrotic tissue destruction and resulting in reduced body weight gain in broilers, decreased egg production in layers, and fecal shedding of viable parasites that re-infect susceptible animals upon ingestion. Over the preceding 40 years, avian coccidiosis has been mainly controlled by prophylactic chemotherapeutic drugs. However, with increasing governmental regulation of using in-feed medication an consumers’ concerns, enhancing host immunity is more logical and sustainable strategy to control coccidiosis. In this report, ARS scientists collaborated with scientists at a pharmatheutical vaccine company to design a novel vaccine formulation containing a proprietary adjuvant formulation that will induce protective immunity against coccidiosis in broiler chickens. The results showed that ISA 71 VG (ISA 71) when combined with profilin induced significant protective immunity against coccidiosis. These results may lead to the design of effective subunit vaccine formulation that can be effectively used to control field coccidiosis by poultry industry.

Technical Abstract: Chickens were immunized subcutaneously with an Eimeria recombinant profilin protein plus ISA 70 VG (ISA 70) or ISA 71 VG (ISA 71) water-in-oil adjuvants, or with profilin alone, and comparative RNA microarray hybridizations were performed to ascertain global transcriptome changes induced by profilin/ISA 70 vs. profilin alone and by profilin/ISA 71 vs. profilin alone. While immunization with profilin/ISA 70 vs. profilin alone altered the levels of more total transcripts compared with profilin/ISA 71 vs. profilin alone (509 vs. 296), the latter was associated with a greater number of unique biological functions, and a larger number of genes within these functions, compared with the former. Further, canonical pathway analysis identified 10 pathways that were associated with genes encoding the altered transcripts in animals immunized with profilin/ISA 71 vs. profilin alone, compared with only 2 pathways in profilin/ISA 70 vs. profilin alone. Therefore, ISA 71 was selected as a candidate adjuvant in conjunction with profilin vaccination for in vivo disease protection studies. Vaccination with profilin/ISA 71 was associated with greater body weight gain following E. acervulina infection, and decreased parasite fecal shedding after E. maxima infection, compared with profilin alone. Anti-profilin antibody levels were higher in sera of E. maxima- and E. tenella-infected chickens vaccinated with profilin/ISA 71 compared with profilin alone. Finally, the levels of transcripts encoding interferon-gamma, interleukin (IL)-2, IL-10, and IL-17A were increased in intestinal lymphocytes from E. acervulina-, E. maxima-, and/or E. tenella-infected chickens vaccinated with profilin/ISA 71 compared with profilin alone. None of these effects were seen in chickens injected with ISA 71 alone indicating that the adjuvant was not conferring non-specific immune stimulation. These results suggest that profiling plus ISA 71 augments protective immunity against selective Eimeria species in chickens.