1. A live attenuated RHΔompdcΔuprt mutant of Toxoplasma gondii induces strong protective immunity against toxoplasmosis in mice and cats
- Author
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Yu Shen, Bin Zheng, Hao Sun, Songrui Wu, Jiyuan Fan, Jianzu Ding, Meng Gao, Qingming Kong, Di Lou, Haojie Ding, Xunhui Zhuo, and Shaohong Lu
- Subjects
Toxoplasma gondii ,Orotidine-5'-monophosphate decarboxylase ,Phosphoribosyltransferase ,Live attenuated vaccine ,Immunization ,Mouse ,Infectious and parasitic diseases ,RC109-216 ,Public aspects of medicine ,RA1-1270 - Abstract
Abstract Background Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular apicomplexan parasite and is responsible for zoonotic toxoplasmosis. It is essential to develop an effective anti-T. gondii vaccine for the control of toxoplasmosis, and this study is to explore the immunoprotective effects of a live attenuated vaccine in mice and cats. Methods First, the ompdc and uprt genes of T. gondii were deleted through the CRISPR-Cas9 system. Then, the intracellular proliferation and virulence of this mutant strain were evaluated. Subsequently, the immune responses induced by this mutant in mice and cats were detected, including antibody titers, cytokine levels, and subsets of T lymphocytes. Finally, the immunoprotective effects were evaluated by challenge with tachyzoites of different strains in mice or cysts of the ME49 strain in cats. Furthermore, to discover the effective immune element against toxoplasmosis, passive immunizations were carried out. GraphPad Prism software was used to conduct the log-rank (Mantel–Cox) test, Student’s t test and one-way ANOVA. Results The RHΔompdcΔuprt were constructed by the CRISPR-Cas9 system. Compared with the wild-type strain, the mutant notably reduced proliferation (P
- Published
- 2023
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