Immune responses in mice induced by multi-epitope DNA vaccine and protein vaccine of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus

Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), caused by the CCHF virus (CCHFV), is a severe tick borne zoonosis widely distributed in over 30 countries and regions. Currently, there is no licensed vaccine available for CCHF in China. To evaluate the cellular and humoral immune responses induced by multi-epitope DNA and protein vaccine of CCHF in BALB/c mice, a multi-epitope gene (MEPX) segment with tandem including six highly conservative and immunedominant B cell epitopes was designed based on the analysis of hydrophilicity and antigenic determinant sites in amino acid sequences of nucleoprotein and glycoprotein from CCHFV strain YL04057. The single and double-copy multi-epitope gene (MEPX and MEPX2) were respectively cloned into the eukaryotic expression vector pVAX I to construct the recombinant (r) plasmid pVAX-MEPX and pVAX-MEPX2 as DNA vaccines. The results of immunofluorescence in vitro showed that the pVAX-MEPX and pVAX-MEPX2 could be expressed in 293T cells. The recombinant prokaryotic plasmid pET-32a-MEPX and pET-32a-MEPX2 constructed previously were transformed them into E. coli BL21 (DE3), and recombinant multi-epitope proteins (rMEPX and rMEPX2) were obtained and purificated by Nickel affinity chromatography. Western blot results showed that rMEPX and rMEPX2 had good antigenicity. BALB/c mice were immunized with DNA vaccine alone, protein vaccine alone, and DNA prime followed by recombinant protein boost immunization strategy, respectively. After three immunizations, MTT assay, cytokine content assay, and ELISA assay for antibody titers were used to evaluate the immune response. The proliferation of mouse specific T lymphocytes in the enhanced by pVAX-MEPX2 combined with rMEPX2 boosting group was significant, and the expression levels of serum IFN-{gamma} and IL-4 in mice were as high as 118.67 pg/mL and 135.33 pg/mL with significant difference compared to the control group (p<0.01), and serum antibody titer could reach up to 4.1x105. Double-copy multi-epitope vaccines groups (pVAX-MEPX2+ rMEPX2) generated better cellular and humoral immune responses by DNA prime-protein vaccine boost combinatorial immunization. This result could lay the foundation for the development of CCHFV multi-epitope vaccine candidates.