Methods to increase vaccine potency
Protection against infectious viral disease may be governed by vaccination using traditional antigen based vaccines emulsified in oil adjuvants. However, the protection against diseases is low to moderate - dependent on antigen dose and antigenicity. In April 2016, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended granting a marketing authorization in the EU for “Clynav”, a DNA vaccine against salmon pancreas disease (SPD) caused by salmon alphavirus (SAV). It is likely that this vaccine will be used by the salmon aquaculture industry quite soon.
We have developed an array of molecular adjuvants encoded in plasmid DNA that may improve the potency of vaccines. These are genes such as T-bet, GATA-3 and Eomes, all being T-cell derived factors important in the differentiation of T-cells to effector cells. These effector cells may be important to fight viruses to avoid pathology.
The research objective is to exploit the use of the molecular adjuvants to increase the vaccine potency (cf. antibody response) and efficacy (protection against disease). We aim to perform a preclinical assessment with special attention to scoring of pathology after intramuscular and intraperitoneal administration of vaccines and assessment of the inflammatory status by means of measuring the transcript levels of TNF, IL-1, Mx and IFN type I, and antibody production analysed by ELISA. Following this, the fish will be subjected to experimental challenge with SAV to assess vaccine efficacies. This project is a master degree project by Kristian Sørmo.
Kristian Sørmo (mastergradsstudent i fiskehelse ved UiT) skal læres opp av undertegnede i alle faser av forsøket, samt av personell ved HiT (etter behov).
We have developed an array of molecular adjuvants encoded in plasmid DNA that may improve the potency of vaccines. These are genes such as T-bet, GATA-3 and Eomes, all being T-cell derived factors important in the differentiation of T-cells to effector cells. These effector cells may be important to fight viruses to avoid pathology.
The research objective is to exploit the use of the molecular adjuvants to increase the vaccine potency (cf. antibody response) and efficacy (protection against disease). We aim to perform a preclinical assessment with special attention to scoring of pathology after intramuscular and intraperitoneal administration of vaccines and assessment of the inflammatory status by means of measuring the transcript levels of TNF, IL-1, Mx and IFN type I, and antibody production analysed by ELISA. Following this, the fish will be subjected to experimental challenge with SAV to assess vaccine efficacies. This project is a master degree project by Kristian Sørmo.
Kristian Sørmo (mastergradsstudent i fiskehelse ved UiT) skal læres opp av undertegnede i alle faser av forsøket, samt av personell ved HiT (etter behov).