Baculovirus-expressed FAdV-4 penton base protein protects chicken against hepatitis-hydropericardium syndrome

• Published in: Journal of Integrative Agriculture Vol. 18; no. 11; pp. 2598 - 2604
• Main Authors: ZHANG, Jun-qin, WEI, Yan-ming, HUANG, Kun, SUN, Xiao-mei, ZOU, Zhong, JIN, Mei-lin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, P.R.China%State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, P.R.China 01.11.2019; Key Laboratory of Development of Veterinary Diagnostic Products, Ministry of Agriculture, Wuhan 430070, P.R.China; State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, P.R.China; College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, P.R.China; KeAi Communications Co., Ltd
• Subjects: Adenoviridae; antibodies; Baculoviridae; baculovirus expression system; chickens; coat proteins; Escherichia coli; fowl adenovirus serotype 4; hepatitis-hydropericardium syndrome; infectious diseases; penton base; recombinant proteins; serotypes; specific pathogen-free animals; subunit vaccine; subunit vaccines; viral nonstructural proteins; virulent strains; hepatitis-hydropericardium syndrome; subunit vaccine; fowl adenovirus serotype 4; penton base; baculovirus expression system
• ISSN: 2095-3119
• DOI: 10.1016/S2095-3119(19)62739-5

Hepatitis-hydropericardium syndrome (HHS) is an infectious disease caused by fowl adenovirus serotype 4 (FAdV-4). Several structural and non-structural proteins of FAdV-4 have been expressed in Escherichia coli and baculovirus expression system to develop candidate subunit vaccines. However, the protective efficiency of baculovirus-expressed penton base protein has not been assessed. In this study, two recombinant capsid proteins, penton base and fiber-2, were constructed. And then, penton base and fiber-2 were administrated alone or together to specific pathogen-free (SPF) chickens at 14 days of life and boosted at 28 days of life. At 42 days of life, the immunized groups and the control group were challenged with FAdV-4 virulent strain. Results show that inoculating penton base or penton base+fiber-2 provided 100% protection to the chickens. All groups vaccinated with the recombinant protein produced detectable antibodies and showed no apparent lesions. Thus, baculovirus-expressed penton base protein is a promising candidate subunit vaccine.