Ferritin Nanoparticle Delivery of the E2 Protein of Classical Swine Fever Virus Completely Protects Pigs from Lethal Challenge
Dailang Zhong,
Zhanhao Lu,
Yu Xia,
Hongxia Wu,
Xinyu Zhang,
Mingzhi Li,
Xin Song,
Yanjin Wang,
Assad Moon,
Hua-Ji Qiu,
Yongfeng Li,
Yuan Sun
Affiliations
Dailang Zhong
State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150069, China
Zhanhao Lu
State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150069, China
Yu Xia
State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150069, China
Hongxia Wu
State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150069, China
Xinyu Zhang
State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150069, China
Mingzhi Li
State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150069, China
Xin Song
State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150069, China
Yanjin Wang
State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150069, China
Assad Moon
State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150069, China
Hua-Ji Qiu
State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150069, China
Yongfeng Li
State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150069, China
Yuan Sun
State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150069, China
Classical swine fever (CSF), caused by the classical swine fever virus (CSFV), results in significant economic losses to the swine industry in many countries. Vaccination represents the primary strategy to control CSF and the CSFV E2 protein is known as the major protective antigen. However, the E2 protein expressed or presented by different systems elicits distinct immune responses. In this study, we established a stable CHO cell line to express the E2 protein and delivered it using self-assembled ferritin nanoparticles (NPs). Subsequently, we compared the adaptive immune responses induced by the E2-ferritin NPs and the monomeric E2 protein produced by the CHO cells or a baculovirus expression system. The results revealed that the NP-delivered E2 protein elicited higher titers of neutralizing antibodies than did the monomeric E2 protein in pigs. Importantly, only the NP-delivered E2 protein significantly induced CSFV-specific IFN-γ-secreting cells. Furthermore, all the pigs inoculated with the E2-ferritin NPs were completely protected from a lethal CSFV challenge infection. These findings demonstrate the ability of the E2-ferritin NPs to protect pigs against the lethal CSFV challenge by eliciting robust humoral and cellular immune responses.
