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 toxoplasmo...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,theompdc anduprt 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’st 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<0.05).In addition,the mutant exhibited virulence attenuation in both murine(BALB/c and BALB/c-nu)and cat models.Notably,limited pathological changes were found in tissues from RHΔompdcΔuprt-injected mice.Furthermore,compared with nonimmunized group,high levels of IgG(IgG1 and IgG2a)antibodies and cytokines(IFN-γ,IL-4,IL-10,IL-2 and IL-12)in mice were detected by the mutant(P<0.05).Remarkably,all RHΔompdcΔuprt-vaccinated mice survived a lethal challenge with RHΔku80 and ME49 and WH6 strains.The immunized sera and splenocytes,especially CD8^(+)T cells,could significantly extend(P<0.05)the survival time of mice challenged with the RHΔku80 strain compared with naïve mice.In addition,compared with nonimmunized cats,cats immunized with the mutant produced high levels of antibodies and cytokines(P<0.05),and notably decreased the shedding numbers of oocysts in feces(95.3%).Conclusions The avirulent RHΔompdcΔuprt strain can provide strong anti-T.gondii immune responses,and is a promising candidate for developing a safe and effective live attenuated vaccine.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.81871684,No.81802037)the Provincial Key R&D program of Zhejiang Department of Science and Technology(No.2019C03057)+3 种基金the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China(No.LY22H190003)the Zhejiang Medical and Health Science and Technology Plan(WKJ-ZJ-2203)the Central Leading Local Science and Technology Development Fund Project(2023ZY1019)the Key Discipline of Zhejiang Province in Public Health and Preventive Medicine(First Class,Category A),Hangzhou Medical College.
文摘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,theompdc anduprt 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’st 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<0.05).In addition,the mutant exhibited virulence attenuation in both murine(BALB/c and BALB/c-nu)and cat models.Notably,limited pathological changes were found in tissues from RHΔompdcΔuprt-injected mice.Furthermore,compared with nonimmunized group,high levels of IgG(IgG1 and IgG2a)antibodies and cytokines(IFN-γ,IL-4,IL-10,IL-2 and IL-12)in mice were detected by the mutant(P<0.05).Remarkably,all RHΔompdcΔuprt-vaccinated mice survived a lethal challenge with RHΔku80 and ME49 and WH6 strains.The immunized sera and splenocytes,especially CD8^(+)T cells,could significantly extend(P<0.05)the survival time of mice challenged with the RHΔku80 strain compared with naïve mice.In addition,compared with nonimmunized cats,cats immunized with the mutant produced high levels of antibodies and cytokines(P<0.05),and notably decreased the shedding numbers of oocysts in feces(95.3%).Conclusions The avirulent RHΔompdcΔuprt strain can provide strong anti-T.gondii immune responses,and is a promising candidate for developing a safe and effective live attenuated vaccine.
