title: Protective immunity of grass carp immunized with DNA vaccine encoding the vp7 gene of grass carp reovirus using carbon nanotubes as a carrier molecule.
abstract: The uses of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) as carriers for DNA delivery have received considerable attention in cell studies. DNA vaccination of fish has been shown to elicit durable transgene expression, but no reports exist on intramuscular administration of SWCNTs-DNA vaccine electrostatic complexes which prepared through non-covalent conjugation. In this study, we injected grass carp intramuscularly with a plasmid vector containing a major capsid protein gene (vp7) of grass carp reovirus as a) naked pcDNA-vp7, b) SWCNTs-pcDNA-vp7, c) empty plasmid vector, or phosphate buffered saline. After intramuscular administration, the ability of the different immune treatments to induce transgene expression was analyzed. The results indicated that higher levels of transcription and expression of the vp7 gene could be detected in muscle tissues of grass carp 28 days intramuscular injection in SWCNTs-pcDNA-vp7 treatment groups compare with naked pcDNA-vp7 treatment groups. Moreover, the serum respiratory burst activity, complement activity, lysozyme activity, superoxide dismutase activity, immune-related genes, antibody levels and relative percentage survival were significantly enhanced in fish immunized with SWCNTs-pcDNA-vp7 vaccine. The data in this study suggested that SWCNTs were promising carriers for plasmid DNA vaccine and might be used to vaccinate fish by intramuscular 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: 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: D000818:Animals; D036022:Capsid Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D002347:Carps; D005393:Fish Diseases / Q000276:immunology*; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D007114:Immunization / Q000662:veterinary; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000032:analysis*; D012087:Reoviridae / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D012088:Reoviridae Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000662:veterinary*; D019444:Vaccines, DNA / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D014765:Viral Vaccines / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D036022:Capsid Proteins; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D019444:Vaccines, DNA; D014765:Viral Vaccines
keywords: Carbon nanotubes; Grass carp; Grass carp reovirus; Immune response; Vaccine