Biological determinants perpetuating the transmission dynamics of mosquito-borne flaviviruses.

Mosquito-borne flaviviruses present a major public health concern. Their transmission is sustained in a cycle between mosquitoes and vertebrate hosts. However, the dynamicity of the virus-mosquito-host triad has not been completely understood. Herein, we discussed determinants of viral, vertebrate host, and mosquito origins that ensure virus adaptability and transmission in the natural environment. In particular, we provided insights into how proteins and RNAs of flaviviruses, blood parameters and odours of humans, and gut microbiota, saliva, and hormones of mosquitoes coordinate with each other to perpetuate the virus transmission cycle. A better knowledge of mechanisms permitting flaviviruses dissemination in nature can provide opportunities for establishing new virus-controlling strategies and could guide future epidemic and pandemic preparedness.

The Preclinical Inhibitor GS441524 in Combination with GC376 Efficaciously Inhibited the Proliferation of SARS-CoV-2 in the Mouse Respiratory Tract

The unprecedented coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is a serious threat to global public health. Development of effective therapies against SARS-CoV-2 is urgently needed. Here, we evaluated the antiviral activity of a remdesivir parent nucleotide analog, GS441524, which targets the coronavirus RNA-dependent RNA polymerase enzyme, and a feline coronavirus prodrug, GC376, which targets its main protease, using a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV-2 infected mouse model. Our results showed that GS441524 effectively blocked the proliferation of SARS-CoV-2 in the mouse upper and lower respiratory tracts via combined intranasal (i.n.) and intramuscular (i.m.) treatment. However, the ability of high-dose GC376 (i.m. or i.n. and i.m.) was weaker than GS441524. Notably, low-dose combined application of GS441524 with GC376 could effectively protect mice against SARS-CoV-2 infection via i.n. or i.n. and i.m. treatment. Moreover, we found that the pharmacokinetic properties of GS441524 is better than GC376, and combined application of GC376 and GS441524 had a synergistic effect. Our findings support the further evaluation of the combined application of GC376 and GS441524 in future clinical studies. ImportanceSevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has seriously threatened global public health and economic development. Currently, effective therapies to treat COVID-19 are urgently needed. In this study, we assessed the efficacy of the preclinical inhibitors GC376 and GS441524 using a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV-2 infected mouse model for the first time. Our results showed that low-dose combined application of GC376 and GS441524 could effectively protect mice from HRB26M infection in the upper and lower respiratory tracts. Hence, the combined application should be developed and considered for future clinic practice.

Method for Japanese encephalitis virus NS3 protease activity analysis and high-throughput screening assay for inhibitors / 生物工程学报

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a single-stranded and positive-sense RNA, which has a single ORF (open reading frame), encoding a polyprotein precursor. Non-structural protein 3 (NS3) plays an important role in processing the polyprotein precursor and has become an important drug target of flavivirus. In this study, NS2BH-NS3 gene was amplified by PCR and subcloned to the prokaryotic expression plasmid, resulting pET30a-NS2BH-NS3. The fusion protein was expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) in soluble form after induction by Isopropyl beta-D-1-Thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG). The recombinant protein was purified by Ni-NTA affinity column. Then a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) method was used to determine enzymatic activity and the assay conditions were optimized. After screening 113 compounds, we found two compounds inhibiting the activity of NS2BH-NS3. This study provides a convenient and cost-effective method for screening of JEV NS3 protease inhibitor.

Construction and identification of a recombinant PRRSV expressing protective antigens of type O foot-and-mouth disease virus / 生物工程学报

Using mutation PCR, we cloned the target gene containing 421-480nt (141-160aa) and 598-639nt (200-213aa) of VP1 gene of foot and mouth disease virus (FMDV) into the deleted region (508-532aa) of Nsp2 gene of a highly pathogenic porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus derived vaccine strain (HuN4-F112) that was used as vector. The recombinant cDNA was in vitro transcribed followed by transfection of BHK-21 cells for 36 h. Then, the supernatant of the cell culture was continuously seeded to monolayer of MARC-145 cells for recovery of the recombinant virus. CPE was obviously visible after a couple of passages in the seeded MARC-145, and the rescued virus (designated as rPRRSV-F112-O/VP1ep) was identified by Mlu I digestion, sequencing and immunofluorescence assay. Meanwhile, expression of inserted FMDV epitopes was also detected by indirect immunofluorescence assay with polyclonal antibodies against VP1 protein of FMDV. The analysis of biological characteristics shows that the titer of the rescued recombinant PRRSV (TCID50 = -log10(-6.75)/0.1 mL) was similar to its direct parental virus rHuN4-F112-delta508-532, but higher than rHuN4-F112.

Construction and characterization of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae serovar 7 live attenuated vaccine strain co-expressing ApxIA / 生物工程学报

Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (A. pleuropneumoniae), the causative agent of porcine contagious pleuropneumonia (PCP), is a significant pathogen of the world pig industry, vaccination is potentially an effective tool for the prevention of PCP. The purpose of present study was to enhance the immunogenicity of A. pleuropneumoniae live vaccine strain HB04C- (serovar 7), which was unable to express ApxIA, and to develop effective multivalent vaccines for the respiratory pathogens based on the attenuated A. pleuropneumoniae. We introduced a shuttle vector containing intact apxIA gene into HB04C-, generating HB04C2, an A. pleuropneumoniae serovar 7 live attenuated vaccine strain co-expressing ApxIA. Then we investigated the biological characteristics of HB04C2. We found that the shuttle vector expressing ApxIA was stable in HB04C2, and the growth ability of HB04C2 was not affected by the shuttle vector. We observed that HB04C2 elicited detectable antibodies against ApxIA and ApxIIA when it was administrated intratracheally as a live vaccine in pigs, and all immunized pigs were protected from heterologous virulent A. pleuropneumoniae (serovar 1) challenge. In conclusion, we demonstrated that A. pleuropneumoniae live vaccine could be used as a vector for expression of heterologous antigens.

Characterization of attenuated Salmonella C500 strain with a delta asd mutant and use as an Asd+ balanced-lethal host-vector system / 生物工程学报

Salmonella enterica serovar Choleraesuis strain C500 is a live, attenuated vaccine that has been used in China for over 40 years to prevent piglet paratyphoid. The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of attenuated Salmonella enterica serovar Choleraesuis C500 strain with a delta asd mutant as an effective live vaccine vector by the Asd+ balanced-lethal host-vector system. Here, we compared the characteristics of S. enterica serovar Choleraesuis delta asdC500 strain with the parent C500 strain, including phenotype, growth rate, virulence, safety, and expression for heterologous antigen. The mean generation times of delta asdC500 mutant, the vector control delta asdC500 (pYA3493), and the parent avirulent C500 vaccine strain in Luria broth were 30.7, 28.1, and 27.9 min, respectively. The fermentation patterns of theses three strains on different carbohydrates, and the levels of production of H2S, were similar. The O and H antigens of delta asdC500 mutant, delta asdC500 (pYA3493) and delta asdC500 (pYA-F1P2) were 6,7:C:1,5, identical to the parent strain C500. By the method of Reed and Muench, groups of mice were challenged by the intraperitoneal route with different amounts of delta asdC500 (pYA3493) or the parent C500 strain, and the virulence of delta asdC500 (pYA3493) with LD50 of 1.1 x 10(7) CFU was a little lower than C500 with LD50 of 4.4 x 10(6) CFU. All piglets inoculated with delta asdC500 (pYA3493) or C500 survived, and no signs of disease were observed during the entire experimental period. No major differences were found in these two groups. In addition, the recombinant pYA-F1P2 plasmid was very stable in the recombinant delta asdC500 (pYA-F1P2) strain, which expressed secretorily a large amount of the recombinant filamentous hemagglutinin type I domain and pertactin region 2 domain antigen (rF1P2) of Bordetella bronchiseptica. In this study, we have shown that the delta asdC500 mutant had a series of biological characteristics similar to the parent vaccine strain C500. Furthermore, the strain could express secretorily a large amount of heterologous antigen. It is likely that this Salmonella expression and delivery system could be easily adapted to develop multivalent recombinant Salmonella vaccines against infectious agents using the Asd+ balanced-lethal host-vector system.

Construction and eukaryotic expression of recombinant plasmid encoding fusion protein of goat complement C3d and foot-and-mouth disease virus VP1 / 生物工程学报

We constructed a recombinant plasmid encoding VP1 gene of O type foot-and-mouth disease virus fused to a molecular adjuvant, goat complement C3d gene. The goat C3d gene was cloned and three copies were tandem-linked with the linker (G4S)2 sequence. VP1 gene of O type foot-and-mouth disease virus was linked to three tandem repeats of C3d through the linker sequence and cloned into pUC19 to obtain the recombinant plasmid pUC19-VP1-C3d3. The VP1-C3d3 fusion gene was then subcloned into the eukaryotic vector pcDNA3.1(+) that had been modified to contain the tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) leader sequence to obtain pcDNA3.1-tPA-VP1-C3d3. HeLa cells were transfected with pcDNA3.1-tPA-VP1-C3d3 by Lipofectamine 2000. Indirect immunofluorescent assay and Western blot assay showed that VP1-C3d3 fusion gene was successfully expressed in HeLa cells. The fusion protein with the expected size 133 kD could be secreted outside the cells. This study laid a good foundation to further research on the novel vaccine against foot-and-mouth disease virus by using goat C3d as a molecular adjuvant to enhance the immunogenicity of VP1.

Establishment of human IFN-gamma in vitro release assay and its application in tuberculosis diagnosis / 生物工程学报

This study aimed to establish human IFN-gamma (hIFN-gamma) in vitro release assay and to apply it in diagnosis of human tuberculosis. Human IFN-gamma gene was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. The recombinant hIFN-gamma was purified and used as immunogen to immunize mice and rabbits respectively. Monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies were respectively developed and a sandwich ELISA was established. The heparized whole blood from 111 active tuberculosis patients and 292 clinical healthy controls were collected. The blood was stimulated with tuberculosis specific fused antigen ESAT-6/CFP-10 and the plasma was collected for IFN-gamma detection. The sensitivity for tuberculosis diagnosis was 95.5%, whereas the positive detection rate for the healthy controls was 16.7%. There was a significant difference between the patients and healthy controls (P<0.01) indicating that this assay had a high sensitivity and specificity, and thus could be promising in tuberculosis diagnosis.

The co-administrating of recombinant porcine IL-2 could enhance protective immune responses to PRV inactivated vaccine in pigs.

Three candidate cytokines: recombinant porcine interleukin-2 (rpIL-2), rpIL-6 and the fusion protein rpIL6-IL2 were used as adjuvants in this study to investigate the enhanced immune responses to PRV inactivated vaccine (IAV) in pigs. In this natural host trial, we demonstrated that rpIL-2 showed potential adjuvant effects on PRV IAV, which was characterized not only in antigen-specific immune responses, but also in protection against PRV infection. The use of rpIL-2 resulted in significantly higher virus neutralizing (VN) antibody levels and CTL activities on PRV IAV vaccination. The increased PRV-specific secretion of pIL-4 and pIFN-gamma from PBMC of pigs also demonstrated the adjuvant effects of rpIL-2. In addition, the co-administration of the rpIL-2 also produced an improved protection to the viral challenge, demonstrated by significant reduction of the ratios of fever and viral excretion in nasal swabs. However, there was no additional effect of adjuvant induced enhancement of immune responses and protection against challenge with the use of rpIL-6 and rpIL6-IL2 in this study.

Quantitative and qualitative study of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to detect IgG against Japanese encephalitis virus in swine sera.

This study was designed to investigate the application of indirect enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) in detecting IgG against Japanese encephalitis virus in swine sera and the qualitative nature of this test. The attenuated strain SA14-14-2 of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) was inoculated into 9-day-old chicken embryos and virus was harvested, purified and suspended in 0.9% saline as JEV antigen. The control antigen was prepared by the same method as for the antigen. In the ELISA, the optimal concentrations of antigen coated and dilution factor were selected using chi2 test. Ninety-two swine sera negative to haemagglutination inhibition (HI) were tested by this assay and the positive threshold was determined. The results of this study indicate that indirect ELISA has high specificity, sensitivity and reproducability. Simultaneous testing of 74 serum samples from nine pig farms was carried out to compare the existing HI test and the indirect ELISA. The coincidence rate of the two assays was 85.1% (63/74) and no significant difference was observed between them (p > 0.05). This ELISA test can detect 46 swine serum samples qualitatively and the titre of eight swine serum samples through endpoint dilution quantitatively within one 96-well plate.

The development and application of the latex agglutination test to detect serum antibodies against Japanese encephalitis virus.

The attenuated SA14-14-2 strain of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) was cultured in BHK-21 cells. The viral supernatant was purified and concentrated with PEG (MW 20,000). A suitable concentration of JEV antigen was used to sensitize latex to prepare the latex antigen. The specificity, sensitivity and stability of the antigen were assessed. A latex agglutination test (LAT) was developed for rapidly detecting antibody against JEV infection. The LAT and haemagglutination inhibition (HI) assay were compared by simultaneously testing 35 porcine serum samples from five farms. Ninety per cent (20/23) of the samples were seropositive by both assays. No significant difference was found between the two methods (p > 0.05). Furthermore, when 1,613 porcine sera from 120 farms were tested by LAT, the number of positive sera was 652, while that of negative sera was 961, ranging from 20% to 50% positive throughout the year. These results indicate that LAT is an appropriate candidate method for epidemiological surveys for and diagnosis of Japanese encephalitis.