A Novel Rabies Vaccine Based on a Recombinant Bovine Herpes Virus Type 1 Expressing Rabies Virus Glycoprotein

Caiquan Zhao; Jie Gao; Yongzhi Wang; Lina Ji; Hui Qin; Wei Hu; Yang Yang

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2022.931043

A Novel Rabies Vaccine Based on a Recombinant Bovine Herpes Virus Type 1 Expressing Rabies Virus Glycoprotein

Front Microbiol. 2022 Jun 8:13:931043. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.931043. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Caiquan Zhao^{1

2}, Jie Gao¹, Yongzhi Wang¹, Lina Ji¹, Hui Qin¹, Wei Hu¹, Yang Yang¹

Affiliations

¹ The State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Regulation and Breeding of Grassland Livestock, School of Life Sciences, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China.
² School of Biological Science and Technology, Baotou Teachers' College, Baotou, China.

Abstract

Rabies is a highly prevalent zoonotic disease and a public health threat worldwide. Currently licensed rabies vaccines are effective but less is known which would protect cattle. This study describes the construction of a novel recombinant bovine herpes virus type I (BHV-1) expressing rabies virus glycoprotein (RABV G) instead of its gE glycoprotein (gE) by CRISPR-Cas9 and homologous recombination technology (BHV-1-ΔgE-G). Insertion of the RABV G gene is stable after 20 rounds of in vitro passaging and the recombinant virus replicates to high titers in MDBK cells. The RABV G expresses in the recombinant virus-infected cells and on the virion surface of BHV-1-ΔgE-G. One single immunization with BHV-1-ΔgE-G-activated dendritic cells (DCs) and B cells furthermore induced a protective immune response in mice against severe lethal challenge infection. A protective level of RABV-specific virus-neutralizing antibody (VNA) was detected in intramuscular immunized mice and cattle without any clinical symptoms. This research demonstrated that the BHV-1 vector-based RABV vaccine is a potential candidate for cattle.

Keywords: bovine herpesvirus type I; dendritic cell; glycoprotein; rabies virus; vaccine; virus-neutralizing antibody.