[Effects of oral levamisole hydrochloride on cellular and humoral immune responses in broiler chickens]

In this experiment, the effect of consecutive oral levamisole usage on cellular and humoral responses of broilers immune system was evaluated. The aim of this experiment was to determine the best level of levamisole for stimulating immune system of broilers. The experiment was conducted by 250 day old [male and female] broiler [Ross] chicks with an average live weight of 40.2g. Effect of zero [control L0], 3.5 [L3.5], 7 [L7], 14 [L14] and 28 [L28] mg/l of levamisole in drinking water from 5 to 25 days under randomized design using a factorial experiment with 5 replication were studied. Cellular immune responses were assayed by PHA-P injection in the skin fold of wings [day 15] and thickness of skin were measured after 24 and 48 hours. Sheep Red Blood Cell [SRBC] 25% were injected in the breast muscle in days 7 and 21 to investigate humoral immune responses, and IgG titer against SRBC was determined in days 7, 14, 28, 35, and 42 by agglutination test. Cellular immune responses to PHA-P in treatments containing 7 and 14 mg/l of levamisole [0.272 and 0.205, respectively] were significantly affected [p<0.05]. IgG titer against SRBC in treatment containing 14 mg/l of levamisole [6.16] was significantly higher than other groups [p<0.05]. Carcass trait of broiler chicks were not affected by different level of consecutive oral levamisole [p>0.05]. The low level [up to 14 mg/L] of consecutive oral levamisole promotes cellular and humoral immune system responses of broiler chicks

[Cloning, sequencing and expression of HSP70 c-terminal domain in Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis]

Heat shock proteins [HSPs] have been shown to act as an adjuvant when co-administered with different antigens, especially tumor antigens or antigens from infectious agents. C-terminal domain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis heat shock protein 70 [Hsp70], when fused to peptide antigens, provides a unique structure that is able to induce potent immune responses. In this study, aneukaryotic expression vector pEGFP-N1, containing C-terminal domain of Mycobacterium paratuberculosis HSP 70, Green Fluorescent Protein [GFP] gene in the plasmid construct, was designed for use as a reporter. With GFP system, expression of the target protein was evaluated in the cell culture. The nucleotide sequence of the cloned gene was revealed by sequencing. The protein expression of designed plasmid was also proved by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction [RT-PCR]. Our eukaryotic expression vector [pEGFP-N1 -hsp70 c-terminal] was successfully constructed and HSP70 c-terminal domain protein was expressed effectively. The current experiment, as a basis for a new DNAvaccine design, can be used for the future studies on reverse vaccinology