Avian-specific immune reagents and immunoassays to analyze poultry immune response

Abstract

Abstract NIFA-funded grant to identify chicken immune molecules, particularly cytokines and chemokines and to characterize their function resulted in new sets of avian-specific immune tools useful in the studies host immune responses after infections and vaccinations. Total 65 new monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have been validated for their specificity against avian molecules using several assays including ELISA, immunohistochemistry, Western blot, flow cytometry, qPCR, and cell proliferation. All the target molecules that we selected have shown to have critical functions in host defense against pathogens and include 13 cytokines (interleukin-4, 7, 10, 12, 13, 17F, 21, 22, 23, 26, 34, IFN-α, IFN-κ, TNF-α, CSF-1, and TGF-β) and 3 chemokines (CXCLi2, CCL4 and 5). Functional similarity and dissimilarity were discovered between immune molecules of avians and mammals. These immune reagents will be useful for studies in host-pathogen immunobiology of infections and vaccinations in poultry. (This research was supported by USDA NIFA award number: 2017-67015-26793)