Oral immunization of mice against Clostridium perfringens epsilon toxin with a Lactobacillus casei vector vaccine expressing epsilon toxoid

摘要

Clostridium perfringens type D infects ruminants and causes the enterotoxemia disease by epsilon-toxin. A mutated epsilon-toxin gene lacking toxicity was designed, synthesized, and cloned into the pT1NX vector and electroporated into Lactobacillus casei competent cells to yield LC-pT1NX-epsilon recombinant strain. BALB/c mice, immunized orally with this strain, highly induced mucosal, humoral, and cell-mediated immune responses and developed a protection against 200 MLD/ml of the activated epsilon-toxin. This study showed that the LC-pT1NX-epsilon could be a promising vaccine candidate against the enterotoxemia disease. (c) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.