title: DNA immunization of pigs with foot-and-mouth disease virus minigenes: from partial protection to disease exacerbation.
abstract: Despite several attempts to design new vaccines, there are as of yet no available alternatives to the conventional FMDV vaccines. Here, we present the divergent results obtained in pigs after immunization with two experimental DNA vaccines encoding one B and two T cell FMDV epitopes, either expressed alone (pCMV-BTT) or fused to a strong signal peptide (pCMV-spBTT). While all pigs vaccinated with pCMV-spBTT showed both a delay in the disease onset and reduced severity of signs and lesions after FMDV challenge, pigs immunized with pCMV-BTT showed an exacerbation of the disease and most of the pigs remained viremic at 10 days post-infection, the end-point of the experiment, thus opening concerns about FMDV-suboptimal immunization. Interestingly, only one of the four pigs vaccinated with pCMV-spBTT showed neutralizing antibodies before challenge, demonstrating that partial protection against FMDV could be afforded in the absence of preexisting neutralizing antibodies.
authors.affiliation: Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA), UAB-IRTA, Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Llilianne
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ganges
authors.forename: Belén
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Borrego
authors.forename: Paloma
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fernández-Pacheco
authors.forename: Concepción
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Revilla
authors.forename: Natalia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fernández-Borges
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Domínguez
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sobrino
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rodriguez
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood; D018450:Disease Progression; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte / Q000276:immunology; D005536:Foot-and-Mouth Disease / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D029544:Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D007114:Immunization; D016753:Interleukin-10 / Q000032:analysis; D013552:Swine; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000821:virology; D019444:Vaccines, DNA / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D014765:Viral Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte; D019444:Vaccines, DNA; D014765:Viral Vaccines; D016753:Interleukin-10