Construction and immunogenicity study of a recombinant DNA candidate vaccine expressing the pigeon circovirus Cap gene

Shuyu DUAN; Dongsheng GUO; Ziyu LIN; Aiduo WANG; Jiayin WANG; Xianchun ZONG; Jinman LI; Jianzhong WANG

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Construction and immunogenicity study of a recombinant DNA candidate vaccine expressing the pigeon circovirus Cap gene

VernacularTitle:表达鸽圆环病毒Cap基因重组DNA候选疫苗的构建及免疫原性
Author: Shuyu DUAN ¹ ; Dongsheng GUO ¹ ; Ziyu LIN ¹ ; Aiduo WANG ¹ ; Jiayin WANG ¹ ; Xianchun ZONG ¹ ; Jinman LI ¹ ; Jianzhong WANG ¹
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1. 吉林农业大学动物医学院动物重大疫病生态疫苗(药物)教育部工程研究中心,吉林长春 130118
Publication Type:Journal Article
Keywords: pigeon circovirus; Cap protein; DNA vaccine; immunogenicity
From: Chinese Journal of Veterinary Science 2025;45(10):2148-2155
CountryChina
Language:Chinese
Abstract: Pigeon circovirus(PiCV)is globally widespread and is considered a potential cause of young pigeon sickness syndrome(YPDS),which leads to severe immunosuppression and high mortality.Due to the inability of PiCV to be cultured in cells,the development of traditional vac-cines is severely limited,and no effective vaccines is currently available.To develop a novel PiCV DNA candidate vaccine,we cloned the △Cap gene lacking a nuclear localization signal(NLS),and fused it at its C-terminus with the transmembrane and cytoplasmic regions of the Newcastle dis-ease virus(NDV)F protein(△Cap-TMCT).Two DNA vaccine candidates were constructed:pCAGG-△Cap,targeting intracellular expression,and pCAGG-△Capt,for cell surface expression,respectively.The results of indirect immunofluorescence and Western blot analyses confirmed suc-cessful expression of both recombinant plasmids in DF1 cells.Immunization studies in mice re-vealed that pCAGG-△Capt induced significantly higher levels of specific IgG antibodies,T-cell re-sponses,and cytokine secretion compared to pCAGG-△Cap,as assessed by ELISA,flow cytome-try,and ELISpot assays.These findings suggest that targeting △Cap-TMCT fusion protein to the cell surface can effectively enhance its immunogenicity,highlighting its potential as a PiCV DNA vaccine candidate.This study provides new strategies and theoretical foundations for the design and development of PiCV DNA vaccines.