Reverse mutation of the virulence-associated S2 gene does not cause an attenuated equine infectious anemia virus strain to revert to pathogenicity.

The contribution of S2 accessory gene of equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) to the virulence of pathogenic strains was investigated in the present study by reverse mutation of all four consensus S2 mutation sites in an attenuated EIAV proviral strain, FDDV3-8, to the corresponding sequences of a highly pathogenic strain DV117. The S2 reverse-mutated recombinant strain FDDVS2r1-2-3-4 replicated with similar kinetics to FDDV3-8 in cultivated target cells. In contrast to the results of other studies of EIAV with dysfunctional S2, reverse mutation of S2 only transiently and moderately increased the plasma viral load of inoculated horses, and induction of transient immunosuppression did not boost viral pathogenicity. In addition, inoculation of FDDVS2r1-2-3-4 induced partial protection to a challenge pathogenic virus. These results suggest that the attenuated EIAV vaccine strain with multiple mutations in multiple genes will not easily revert to a virulent phenotype.

A proviral derivative from a reference attenuated EIAV vaccine strain failed to elicit protective immunity.

To investigate essential factors that determine the efficacy of vaccines against lentiviruses, an effective attenuated equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) vaccine strain and a proviral derivative of the vaccine were compared with respect to differences in inducing protective immunity. Although these two strains replicated equally well in vitro and in vivo, the proviral strain induced significantly less protection from disease and infection caused by viral challenge and significantly lower specific neutralizing capability. These findings indicated that the proviral strain had lost the ability to stimulate immune protection compared to the parental vaccine strain. A further analysis of the envelope gp90 gene variation revealed that compared to the proviral strain, the vaccine strain displayed a wide sequence diversity in immunogen composition. Thus, we inferred that the differences in immunogen composition might be the major cause for the failure of the proviral derivative to elicit the immune protection induced by the parental strain.

An attenuated EIAV vaccine strain induces significantly different immune responses from its pathogenic parental strain although with similar in vivo replication pattern.

The EIAV (equine infectious anemia virus) multi-species attenuated vaccine EIAV(DLV121) successfully prevented the spread of equine infectious anemia (EIA) in China in the 1970s and provided an excellent model for the study of protective immunity to lentiviruses. In this study, we compared immune responses induced by EIAV(DLV121) to immunity elicited by the virulent EIAV(LN40) strain and correlated immune responses to protection from infection. Horses were randomly grouped and inoculated with either EIAV(DLV121) (Vaccinees, Vac) or a sublethal dose of EIAV(LN40) (asymptomatic carriers, Car). Car horses became EIAV(LN40) carriers without disease symptoms. Two of the four Vac horses were protected against infection and the other two had delayed onset or reduced severity of EIA with a lethal EIAV(LN40) challenge 5.5 months post initial inoculation. In contrast, all three Car animals developed acute EIA and two succumbed to death. Specific humoral and cellular immune responses in both Vac and Car groups were evaluated for potential correlations with protection. These analyses revealed that although plasma viral loads remained between 10(3) and 10(5)copies/ml for both groups before EIAV(LN40) challenge, Vac-treated animals developed significantly higher levels of conformational dependent, Env-specific antibody, neutralizing antibody as well as significantly elevated CD4(+) T cell proliferation and IFN-γ-secreting CD8(+) T cells than those observed in EIAV(LN40) asymptomatic carriers. Further analysis of protected and unprotected cases in vaccinated horses identified that cellular response parameters and the reciprocal anti-p26-specific antibody titers closely correlated with protection against infection with the pathogenic EIAV(LN40). These data provide a better understanding of protective immunity to lentiviruses.

[Construction and in vitro evaluation of an infectious clone of the equine infectious anemia virus vaccine strain EIAV(FDDV) with four reverse-mutated vaccine-specific sites in the S2 gene].

To elucidate the function of the S2 gene in equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) and its role in the attenuation of the Chinese attenuated EIAV vaccine strains, the S2 in the EIAV vaccine strain EIAV (FDDV) was reverse-mutated and the in vitro replication character of the resultant virus was evaluated. Based on the sequence variation of the S2 gene between the EIAV virulent strains and vaccine strains, all the four vaccine-specific sites in the S2 of an EIAV(FDDV) infectious clone, pFDDV3-8, were reverse-mutated to the sequences of the virulent strain EIAV(DV115). The reverse-mutated molecular clone pFDDVS2r1-3-4-5 was used to transfect fetal donkey dermal (FDD) cells for rescuing the derived virus vpFDDVS2r1-3-4-5. The production and replication of vpFDDVS2r1-3-4-5 in FDD cells were proved by RT-PCR, immune fluorescence assay and reverse transcriptase activity assay. Typical virons of EIAV were clearly observed under the electron microscopy. The parallel analysis of the dynamic replication of the reverse-mutated viral clone vpFDDVS2r1-3-4-5 and its parental virus vpFDDV3-8 showed that the virus with four reverse mutations in the S2 replicated only slightly slower than its parental vaccine strain in FDD cells. This result implicates that the mutations in the S2 of the EIAV vaccine strains did not significantly alter the viral replication in vitro. Further studies on the in vivo replication of the reverse-mutated viral clone are required for understanding the relationship between the S2 and the attenuated pathogenesis of EIAV attenuated vaccines.

[Induction of EIAV-specific cellular immune response by attenuated EIAV vaccine].

AIM: To elucidate cellular immune protective mechanism of EIAV. METHODS: Four horses were immunized with (DLV) by subcutaneous injection and 2 horses with 0.85% sodium chloride as the negative control. Rectal temperatures and clinical features were recorded daily. Whole blood samples were collected, from which PBMC were separated and used for CTL assay and lymphocyte proliferation assay. RESULTS: The target cells were activated by PWM and treated with DLV or recombinant vaccinia vectors expressing DLV and LN Gag or Env separately. The percentage of EIAV-specific CTL lysis was under 5% in the negative control group, however, that was 20% to 30% in the group of immunized horses. The stimulation index (SI) from proliferation assay was 3 in the group immunized with attenuated DLV vaccine. CONCLUSION: The results indicated that EIAV-specific cellular immune-response induced by DLV immunization may contribute to the immune protective effect against EIAV virus infection.

[Elevation of IFN-gamma transcription level in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of EIAV vaccinated horses].

AIM: To evaluate the relationship between the transcriptional level of IFN-gamma mRNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and immune protective response driven by inoculated horses with donkey leukocyte attenuated vaccine of EIAV(DLV), and to elucidate the immune mechanism of DLV. METHODS: A real-time PCR method was established for quantitative detection of IFN-gamma mRNA level from horse PBMCs. Twelve horses were divided into vaccination group, healthy control group, challenging control group and EIAV natural infection group. The transcriptional level and distribution of IFN-gamma mRNA in PBMCs were analyzed. The temperature and other parameters of the inoculated horses were monitored or a daily basis. Horses inoculated with DLV vaccines were challenged post-inoculated 8 months, and the change of transcriptional level of IFN-gamma mRNA during pre/post-challenge was evaluated. RESULTS: Compared with the healthy control and natural infection group. The transcriptional level of IFN-gamma mRNA was much higher in vaccination group (P<0.01), and kept increasing even after challenging with virulent EIAV strains. In the challenging control group, the transcriptional level of IFN-gamma mRNA fluctuated with the development of disease and reduced markedly during febrific episodes. CONCLUSION: This study for the first time reveals that EIAV-attenuated vaccine could induce high level transcription of IFN-gamma mRNA, with is associated closely with immune protective response induced by DLV. This finding provides some clues to elucidate the mechanism of immunity protection of DLV at the molecular level.

[Expression and immunogenicity of equine infectious anemia virus membrane protein GP90].

BACKGROUND: Membrane protein GP90 of China equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) vaccine strain (DLV) and its parental wild type LN strain were expressed with Bac-to-Bac baculovirus expression system and BALB/c mice were inoculated with purified protein, thereby to explore the availability of protein for differential diagnosis and potential for preparing genetically engineered vaccine. METHODS: The authors infected donkey PBMC culture with China EIAV vaccine strain (DLV) and its parental wild type LN strain, extracted its proviral DNA as template, amplified the GP90 of DLV and LN, respectively, and expressed with Bac-to-Bac baculovirus expression system. The sf9 insect cells were infected with the recombinant baculovirus and the expressed proteins were purified by IMAC. BALB/c mice were inoculated with purified protein. The specific binding Abs generated in the immunized mice were determined by ELISA method. The neutralizing assay was set up to determine the neutralizing capability of the antigens generated in immunized animals. RESULTS: The recombinant virus expressing viral antigens was determined by Western blot. The expressed proteins were purified by IMAC resulting in the protein purity of 87%(DLV) and 82%(LN), respectively. The antibody titer of the groups with and without adjuvant was 1 600 and 800, respectively. Serial 2 fold dilutions of the immunized mice sera were reacted with 100 TCID50 of EIAV. The end point of immunization assay was to protect 50% cells form CPE caused by EIAV in donkey skin cells. The neutralizing antibody titer was in the range 40 to 80 from animal immunized with and without adjuvant. CONCLUSIONS: Membrane proteins of EIAV vaccine strain and wild type strain were successfully expressed in eukaryotic cell expression system according to the scheduled plan. The proteins showed strong immunogenicity and could activate animals to produce anti-EIAV specific antibody including neutralizing antibody to EIAV.

[Combination immunization with EIAV Env protein expressed by recombinant baculovirus and recombinant vaccinia virus containing env gene].

AIM: To develop a novel vaccine candidate of Equine infectious anemia virus(EIAV). METHODS: env genes of EIAV Chinese donkey leukocyte attenuated strain (EIAV DLV) and its parental virus strain (EIAV LN) were expressed using the BAC-To-BAC system, and Env proteins were confirmed by SDS-PAGE and Western blot. BALB/c mice were immunized with recombinant vaccinia viruses containing env genes of EIAV alone or boosted with Env proteins expressed by recombinant baculovirus. Both protective humoral and cellular immune responses were detected. RESULTS: Recombinant baculovirus could express complete Env proteins and the titer of neutralizing antibody in the prime-boost group was found to be 5 to 9 folds higher than that in the rVV group. CONCLUSION: Combination of protein antigen and recombinant vaccinia virus could induce high titer of neutralizing antibody against EIAV. This work facilitates development of a novel genetically engineered vaccine of EIAV as a model for future development of an HIV vaccine.