• Vaccine Name: T. gondii DNA vaccine pEGFP-C1/GRA41
• Target Pathogen: Toxoplasma gondii
• Target Disease: Toxoplasmosis
• Type: DNA vaccine
• Status: Research
• Host Species for Licensed Use: Human
• Antigen: GRA41: dense granular protein 41. Induce the interface formation between host cells and parasite. (Zhou et al., 2019)
• GRA41 gene engineering:
  • Type: DNA vaccine construction
  • Description: Amplified by PCR using a forward primer introducing HindIII recognition sites and a reverse primer introducing BamHI recognition sites. The amplified GRA41 was purified and was inserted into the pEGFP-C1 vector. (Zhou et al., 2019)
  • Detailed Gene Information: Click Here.
• Immunization Route: Intramuscular injection (i.m.)
• Description: T. gondii DNA vaccine that encodes GRA41 using pEGFP-C1 vector. Used in PBS. (Zhou et al., 2019)

Mouse Response

• Host Strain: BALB/c mice (Zhou et al., 2019)
• Host age: 6–8 weeks (Zhou et al., 2019)
• Host gender: female (Zhou et al., 2019)
• Vaccination Protocol: Mice were assigned to three groups where there were 24 mice in each one. All the mice were vaccinated with 100 μL of PBS containing 100 μg pGRA41, 100 μg empty vectors, or 100 μg PBS respectively. There were three injections with 2 week interval. (Zhou et al., 2019)
• Immune Response: Humoral: The level of IgG in pEGFP-C1/GRA41 group increased continuously after the first injection. There was a reliable difference in the IgG quantity between the test group and the control groups in week 4 and week 6 (P<0.05). The difference was significant between IgG2a and IgG1 in pEGFPC1/GRA41 group (P<0.05). The quantity of the former is approximately two times than that of the latter. (Zhou et al., 2019)
  Cellular: For IFN-γ, there was a statistically signifcant difference between the pEGFPC1/GRA41 group and the two controlled groups. However, for IL-4 or IL-10, there was no statistically significant difference between all groups. (Zhou et al., 2019)
• Challenge Protocol: Two weeks after the fnal immunization, ten mice were challenged intraperitoneally with 1×10^4 tachyzoites of the high virulence T. gondii RH strain, and another 10 mice were challenged intragastrically with 20 T. gondii PRU strain cysts. (Zhou et al., 2019)
• Efficacy: RH: All mice in pEGFPC1/GRA41 group died on day 18, with an average survival duration of 13.3±3.37 days, compared to mice in the control groups which all died on day 7. For survival duration, there was remarkable difference between the pEGFPC1/GRA41 group and the control groups (P<0.05). (Zhou et al., 2019)
  PRU: The mean number of cysts in control groups (1520±278) was approximately two times higher than that of pEGFP-C1/GRA41 group (618±132), which was statistically signifcant (P<0.05). (Zhou et al., 2019)