Mucosal application of cationic poly(d,l-lactide-co-glycolide) microparticles as carriers of DNA vaccine and adjuvants to protect chickens against infectious bursal disease

Abstract

Infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) is an immunosuppressive virus of chickens. The virus protein (VP) 2 induces neutralizing antibodies, which protect chickens against the disease. The aim of this study was to develop a cationic poly(d,l-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) microparticle (MP) based IBDV-VP2 DNA vaccine (MP-IBDV-DNA) for chickens to be delivered orally and by eye drop route. The tested IBDV-VP2 DNA vaccines were immunogenic for specific-pathogen-free chickens and induced an antibody response after intramuscular application. Co-inoculation with a plasmid encoding chicken IL-2 (chIL-2) or CpG-ODN did not significantly improve protection against IBDV challenge. However, the application of a MP-IBDV-DNA vaccine alone or in combination with a delayed oral and eye drop application of cationic MP loaded with CpG-ODN or chIL-2 improved protection against challenge. The MP-IBDV-DNA-vaccinated chickens showed less pathological and histopathological bursal lesions, a reduced IBDV antigen load as well as T-cell influx into the bursa of Fabricius (BF) compared to the other groups (p<0.05). The addition of chIL-2 loaded MP improved challenge virus clearance from the BF as demonstrated by lower neutralizing antibody titers and reduced IL-4 and IFN-α mRNA expression in the bursa at 7 days postchallenge compared to the other challenged groups. Overall, the efficacy of the IBDV-DNA vaccine was improved by adsorption of the DNA vaccine onto cationic PLGA-MP, which also allowed mucosal application of the DNA vaccine.