Title: Deletion of E184L, a Putative DIVA Target from the Pandemic Strain of African Swine Fever Virus, Produces a Reduction in Virulence and Protection against Virulent Challenge

Journal Article · · Journal of Virology
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [1];  [1];  [4];  [5];  [1];  [5];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA), Greenport, NY (United States). Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Plum Island Animal Disease Center
  2. US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA), Greenport, NY (United States). Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Plum Island Animal Disease Center; Mississippi State Univ., Starkville, MS (United States)
  3. US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA), Greenport, NY (United States). Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Plum Island Animal Disease Center; Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  4. US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA), Greenport, NY (United States). Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Plum Island Animal Disease Center; Kansas State Univ., Manhattan, KS (United States)
  5. Univ. Autonoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Spain). Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA, IRTA-UAB)
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African swine fever (ASF) is currently causing a major pandemic affecting the swine industry and protein availability from Central Europe to East and South Asia. No commercial vaccines are available, making disease control dependent on the elimination of affected animals. Here, we show that the deletion of the African swine fever virus (ASFV) E184L gene from the highly virulent ASFV Georgia 2010 (ASFV-G) isolate produces a reduction in virus virulence during the infection in swine. Of domestic pigs intramuscularly inoculated with a recombinant virus lacking the E184L gene (ASFV-GDE184L), 40% experienced a significantly (5 days) delayed presentation of clinical disease and, overall, had a 60% rate of survival compared to animals inoculated with the virulent parental ASFV-G. Importantly, all animals surviving ASFV-G-DE184L infection developed a strong antibody response and were protected when challenged with ASFV-G. As expected, a pool of sera from ASFV-G-DE184L-inoculated animals lacked any detectable antibody response to peptides partially representing the E184L protein, while sera from animals inoculated with an efficacious vaccine candidate, ASFV-GDMGF, strongly recognize the same set of peptides. These results support the potential use of the E184L deletion for the development of vaccines able to differentiate infected from vaccinated animals (DIVA). Therefore, it is shown here that the E184L gene is a novel ASFV determinant of virulence that can potentially be used to increase safety in preexisting vaccine candidates, as well as to provide them with DIVA capabilities. To our knowledge, E184L is the first ASFV gene product experimentally shown to be a functional DIVA antigenic marker.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDA; USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0014664
OSTI ID:
1983351
Journal Information:
Journal of Virology, Journal Name: Journal of Virology Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 96; ISSN 0022-538X
Publisher:
American Society for MicrobiologyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
ASF
ASFV
African swine fever
DIVA
E184L
Virology