ABSTRACT
Vaccination of poultry against coccidiosis caused by the Eimeria species is almost entirely based upon varied formulations of live parasites. The recent development of a series of protocols that support genetic complementation by transfection in Eimeria now provides an opportunity to utilise live anticoccidial vaccines to deliver additional vaccinal antigens. The capacity of Eimeria tenella to express an exogenous antigen and induce an immune response during in vivo infection which is protective against subsequent bacterial challenge has been tested here using the anti-Campylobacter jejuni vaccine candidate CjaA. Using restriction enzyme mediated integration (REMI) a transgenic E. tenella population expressing CjaA and the fluorescent reporter mCitrine has been developed. Vaccination of specific pathogen free chickens by single or multiple oral inoculation of E. tenella-CjaA oocysts induced 91% and 86% immune protection against C. jejuni challenge compared with unvaccinated and wild-type E. tenella vaccinated controls (p<0.001). Increasing vaccination number had no significant influence on the magnitude of protection. These results support the hypothesis that eimerian parasites can be developed as multivalent vaccine vectors and encourage the extension of these studies.
Subject(s)
ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters/immunology , Amino Acid Transport Systems, Neutral/immunology , Bacterial Vaccines/genetics , Campylobacter Infections/veterinary , Chickens , Eimeria tenella/genetics , Gene Transfer Techniques , Poultry Diseases/prevention & control , ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters/genetics , Amino Acid Transport Systems, Neutral/genetics , Animals , Bacterial Vaccines/immunology , Campylobacter Infections/immunology , Campylobacter Infections/prevention & control , Campylobacter jejuni/immunology , Eimeria tenella/immunology , Electroporation , Genes, Reporter , Genetic Vectors/genetics , Genetic Vectors/immunology , Immunity, Active , Oocysts/immunology , Organisms, Genetically Modified/genetics , Organisms, Genetically Modified/immunology , Poultry Diseases/immunology , Transfection , Vaccination/veterinaryABSTRACT
Stable transfection of Eimeria species has been difficult to achieve because of the obligate requirement for in vivo amplification and selection of the parasites. Strategies to generate and stabilise populations of transfected Eimeria tenella are described here, together with the identification of optimal parameters for the transfection process. A series of plasmids expressing selectable markers, including a panel of fluorescent reporter genes and a mutant Toxoplasma gondii dihydrofolate reductase-thymidylate synthase (DHFR-TSm2m3) gene that confers resistance to pyrimethamine, were electroporated into sporozoites of the E. tenella Wisconsin strain and stabilised by selective passage through chickens. Very high transfection efficiencies of up to 25% sporozoites in transient transfection and up to 9% oocysts following a single round of in vivo selection were achieved. Crucial factors include the use of very freshly harvested parasites with the AMAXA nucleofection system (program U33 in a cytomix-buffered reaction) and linearised plasmid DNA. The use of a restriction enzyme mediated integration (REMI) protocol boosted overall efficiency and elevated insertion rate per genome. Successful development of methods to generate and isolate stable populations of transfected Eimeria parasites will now stimulate rapid expansion of reverse genetic studies in this important coccidian.
