[Construction of monovalent and compound nucleic acid vaccines against Toxoplasma gondii with gene encoding p30].

OBJECTIVE: To construct a monovalent gene vaccine pcDNA3.1-p30 and a compound gene vaccine pcDNA3.1-p30-ROP2 and assess the protective effect of the two vaccines against Toxoplasma gondii. METHODS: The sequences encoding p30 and ROP2 were amplified from the genomic DNA of T. gondii RH strain by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and inserted into eukaryotic vector pcDNA3.1 to construct pcDNA3.1-p30 and pcDNA3.1-p30-ROP2. Mice were injected with the recombinant plasmid to observe the immunoprotectivity of the nucleic acid vaccine by using ELISA for detection of total IgG and observing the survival time after tachyzoites challenge. RESULTS: The recombinant plasmids pcDNA3.1-p30 and pcDNA3.1-p30-ROP2 were constructed. Mice in pcDNA3.1-p30-ROP2 group showed higher IgG (P < 0.05) and survived longer than those in pcDNA3.1-p30 group (P < 0.01) after challenged with T. gondii. CONCLUSION: Compound vaccine of genes from different stages of T. gondii elicits stronger immunoprotectivity in mice than a single gene vaccine.