DNA vaccination of poultry: The current status in 2015

Abstract

DNA vaccination is a promising alternative strategy for developing new human and animal vaccines. The massive efforts made these past 25 years to increase the immunizing potential of this kind of vaccine are still ongoing. A relatively small number of studies concerning poultry have been published. Even though there is a need for new poultry vaccines, five parameters must nevertheless be taken into account for their development: the vaccine has to be very effective, safe, inexpensive, suitable for mass vaccination and able to induce immune responses in the presence of maternal antibodies (when appropriate). DNA vaccination should meet these requirements. This review describes studies in this field performed exclusively on birds (chickens, ducks and turkeys). No evaluations of avian DNA vaccine efficacy performed on mice as preliminary tests have been taken into consideration. The review first describes the state of the art for DNA vaccination in poultry: pathogens targeted, plasmids used and different routes of vaccine administration. Second, it presents strategies designed to improve DNA vaccine efficacy: influence of the route of administration, plasmid dose and age of birds on their first inoculation; increasing plasmid uptake by host cells; addition of immunomodulators; optimization of plasmid backbones and codon usage; association of vaccine antigens and finally, heterologous prime-boost regimens. The final part will indicate additional properties of DNA vaccines in poultry: fate of the plasmids upon inoculation, immunological considerations and the use of DNA vaccines for purposes other than preventing infectious diseases.

Protective Efficacy of Coccidial Common Antigen Glyceraldehyde 3-Phosphate Dehydrogenase (GAPDH) against Challenge with Three Eimeria Species

“…DNA vaccines have been suggested as a promising alternative strategy against coccidiosis as they lack the disadvantages associated with chemo-prophylaxis and live vaccines (Ivory and Chadee, 2004; Blake and Tomley, 2014; Song et al, 2015c; Ahmad et al, 2016; Meunier et al, 2016). Therefore, we evaluated the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of common antigen GAPDH in form of DNA vaccine.…”

Duck virus enteritis (duck plague) – a comprehensive update

“…This recombinant DEV vector vaccine has been suggested to be a good choice for vaccination in ducks and reduce DEV outbreaks. Studies have emphasized that DNA vaccine, appropriate codon usage for targeted protein/glycoprotein, selection of plasmid for proper uptake by host cells, dose and stability of plasmid, age of bird, the route of vaccine administration either by gene gun, intramuscular or subcutaneous, and vaccination strategy all have significant impact on enhancing the immune responses against DPV after immunization in poultry/birds (Dhama, Mahendran, Gupta, & Rai 2008;Meunier et al 2016). The laboratory results of such vaccine trials prove the enhancing immunization potential of DNA vaccines and hence clinical validation of such vaccines should be attempted to encourage the DNA vaccination strategy to be adapted for supporting the prevention and control measures against DPV.…”

Evaluation of vaccine delivery systems for inducing long-lived antibody responses to Dermanyssus gallinae antigen in laying hens

“…In the current study, we used a prototype vaccine antigen D. gallinae cathepsin D1 (Dg-CatD-1) (Bartley et al, 2012), and compared antigen delivery to laying hens by: (i) immunization with purified recombinant Dg-CatD-1 in adjuvant; (ii) recombinant DNA vaccination for expression of Dg-CatD-1 and (iii) oral challenge with populations of the live transgenic coccidial parasite Eimeria tenella expressing Dg-CatD-1. These delivery platforms were chosen to compare antigenspecific antibody titres in laying hens using tried and tested protein-in-adjuvant vaccination (Bartley et al, 2017), with new vaccine technologies which include DNA vaccination (Gupta et al, 2016;Meunier et al, 2016) and a novel experimental E. tenella antigen delivery system (Clark et al, 2012;Marugan-Hernandez et al, 2016;Pastor-Fernandez et al, 2018), in order to identify the optimal system. We assessed each delivery platform for the ability to induce specific anti-Dg-CatD-1 IgY in laying hens and monitor longevity of the response over a commercially relevant period.…”