A Live Salmonella Gallinarum Vaccine Candidate Secreting an Adjuvant Protein Confers Enhanced Safety and Protection Against Fowl Typhoid.

Live attenuated vaccines are used for effective protection against fowl typhoid (FT) in domestic poultry. In this study, a lon/cpxR/asd deletion mutant of Salmonella Gallinarum expressing the B subunit of a heat labile toxin (LTB) from Escherichia coli, a known adjuvant, was cloned in a recombinant p15A ori plasmid, JOL1355, and evaluated as a vaccine candidate in chickens. The plasmid was shown to be stable inside the attenuated Salmonella Gallinarum cell after three successive generations. Moreover, from an environmental safety point of view, apart from day 1 the JOL1355 strain was not detected in feces through day 21 postinoculation. For the efficacy of JOL1355, a total of 100 chickens were equally divided into two groups. Group A (control) chickens were intramuscularly inoculated with phosphate-buffered saline at 4 and 8 wk of age. Group B chickens were primed and boosted via the intramuscular route with 200 µL of a bacterial suspension of JOL1355 containing 1 × 10(8) colony forming units. All the chickens in Group A and B were challenged at 3 wk postbooster by oral inoculation with a wild-type Salmonella Gallinarum strain, JOL420. The JOL1355-immunized group showed significant protection and survival against the virulent challenge compared to the nonimmunized group. In addition, Group B exhibited a significantly higher humoral immune response, and the chickens remained healthy without any symptoms of anorexia, diarrhea, or depression. Group B also exhibited a significantly lower mortality rate of 4% compared to the 46% of the control group, which can be attributed to higher immunogenicity and better protection. The Group B chickens had significantly lower lesion scores for affected organs, such as the liver and spleen, compared to those of the control chickens (P < 0.01). These findings suggest that JOL1355 is a promising candidate for a safe and highly immunogenic vaccine against FT.

TK1299, a highly thermostable NAD(P)H oxidase from Thermococcus kodakaraensis exhibiting higher enzymatic activity with NADPH.

Seven nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide oxidase homologs have been found in the genome of Thermococcus kodakaraensis. The gene encoding one of them, TK1299, consisted of 1326 nucleotides, corresponding to a polypeptide of 442 amino acids. To examine the molecular properties of TK1299, the structural gene was cloned, expressed in Escherichia coli and the gene product was characterized. Molecular weight of the recombinant protein was 49,375 Da when determined by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight and 300 kDa when analyzed by gel filtration chromatography indicating that it existed in a hexameric form. The enzyme was highly thermostable even in boiling water where it exhibited more than 95% of the enzyme activity after incubation of 150 min. TK1299 catalyzed the oxidation of NADH as well as NADPH and predominantly converted O2 to H2O (more than 75%). K(m) value of the enzyme towards NADH and NADPH was almost same (24 ± 2 µM) where as specific activity was higher with NADPH compared to NADH. To our knowledge this is the most thermostable and unique NAD(P)H oxidase displaying higher enzyme activity with NADPH.