title: BCG vaccine confers adaptive immunity against Mycobacterium sp. infection in fish.
abstract: Mycobacteriosis, caused by Mycobacterium sp., results in severe loss of fish production in Japan's aquaculture industry. In this study, the effects of two vaccine candidates, Bacillus Calmette and Guèrin (BCG, an attenuated strain of Mycobacterium bovis) and formalin-killed cells of Mycobacterium sp. were evaluated in Japanese flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus. In the immediate response and tuberculin response, BCG-vaccinated fish showed higher gene expression levels of inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1beta, IL-6, IFN-gamma and TNFalpha. Furthermore, BCG vaccination conferred protective efficacy against Mycobacterium sp. infection in Japanese flounder. Transcriptome analysis using a Japanese flounder cDNA microarray revealed that BCG vaccination induced not only adaptive immunity against Mycobacterium sp. antigen but also the expression of non-specific bactericidal proteins such as lysozyme. These data suggest that BCG confers immunity to Mycobacterium sp. infection and is a potent vaccine candidate for fish mycobacteriosis.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Genome Science, Graduate School of Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Goshi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.forename: Hidehiro
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kondo
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Aoki
authors.forename: Ikuo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hirono
mesh_terms: D056704:Adaptive Immunity; D000818:Animals; D001500:BCG Vaccine / Q000276:immunology*; D029941:Fish Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D005412:Flatfishes / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D009164:Mycobacterium Infections / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis
chemical_list: D001500:BCG Vaccine; D029941:Fish Proteins