Protective efficacy of a DNA vaccine construct encoding the VP2 gene of infectious bursal disease and a truncated HSP70 of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in chickens

Infectious bursal disease (IBD) is an acute, infectious, immunosuppressive disease affecting young chicken worldwide. The etiological agent IBD virus (IBDV) is a double stranded RNA virus with outer capsid protein VP2 of IBDV is the major antigenic determinant capable of inducing neutralizing antibody. DNA vaccines encoding VP2 has been extensively studied achieving only partial protection. However, the efficacy of DNA vaccines against IBDV can be augmented by choosing a potential molecular adjuvant. The goal of the present study is to evaluate the immune response and protective efficacy of a DNA vaccine encoding the C-terminal domain of the heat shock protein 70 (cHSP70) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis gene genetically fused with the full length VP2 gene of IBDV (pCIVP2-cHSP70) in comparison to a 'DNA prime-protein boost' approach and a DNA vaccine encoding the VP2 gene (pCIVP2) alone. The results indicate that both pCIVP2-cHSP70 and 'DNA prime-protein boost' elicited humoral as well as cellular immune responses. Chickens in the pCIVP2-cHSP70 and 'DNA prime-protein boost' groups developed significantly higher levels of ELISA titer to IBDV antigen compared to the group immunized with pCIVP2 alone (p