title: Single-walled carbon nanotubes as candidate recombinant subunit vaccine carrier for immunization of grass carp against grass carp reovirus.
abstract: Grass carp reovirus (GCRV), the most pathogenic aquareovirus, can cause fatal hemorrhagic disease in fingerling and yearling grass carp. Vaccination by injection is by far the most effective method of combating disease. However it is labor intensive, costly and not feasible to vaccinate large numbers of the fish. Thus, an efficient and economic strategy for the prevention of GCRV infection becomes urgent. Here, functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) as carrier were used to manufacture SWCNTs-VP7 subunit vaccine with chemical modification. Different developmental stages of grass carps were immunized by VP7/SWCNTs-VP7 subunit vaccine against GCRV by intramuscular injection and bath immunization. The results indicate that better immune responses of grass carp immunized with the SWCNTs-VP7 subunit vaccine were induced in comparison with VP7 subunit vaccine alone. Immunization doses/concentrations are significantly reduced (about 5-8 times) to prevent GCRV infection in different developmental stages of grass carp with injection or bath treatment when SWCNTs carrier was used. A good immune protective effect (relative percentage survival greater than 95%) is observed in smaller size fish (0.2 g) with SWCNTs-VP7 bath immunization. In addition, serum respiratory burst activity, complement activity, lysozyme activity, superoxide dismutase activity, alkaline phosphatase activity, immune-related genes and antibody levels were significantly enhanced in fish immunized with vaccine. This study suggested that functionalized SWCNTs was the promising carrier for recombinant subunit vaccine and might be used to vaccinate fish by bath approach.
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: College of Science, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China.
authors.forename: Guang-Lu
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: College of Veterinary Medicine, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China.
authors.forename: Yu-Xin
authors.initials: YX
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China.
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ling
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Experimental Marine Biology, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China.
authors.forename: Lin-Sheng
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China. Electronic address: wanggaoxue@126.com.
authors.forename: Gao-Xue
authors.initials: GX
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000469:Alkaline Phosphatase / Q000097:blood; D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood; D017756:Aquaculture / Q000379:methods; D002347:Carps; D002681:China; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D003165:Complement System Proteins / Q000276:immunology; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods*; D005393:Fish Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000821:virology*; D007114:Immunization / Q000379:methods; D009113:Muramidase / Q000378:metabolism; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012087:Reoviridae / Q000276:immunology*; D012088:Reoviridae Infections / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000662:veterinary*; D016897:Respiratory Burst / Q000276:immunology; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013482:Superoxide Dismutase / Q000097:blood; D014765:Viral Vaccines / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D017931:DNA Primers; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D014765:Viral Vaccines; D003165:Complement System Proteins; D013482:Superoxide Dismutase; D000469:Alkaline Phosphatase; D009113:Muramidase
keywords: Grass carp; Grass carp reovirus; Immune response; Single-walled carbon nanotubes; Vaccine