Chimeric vapA/groEL2 DNA vaccines enhance clearance of Rhodococcus equi in aerosol challenged C3H/He mice

Rhodococcus equi remains a significant bacterial pathogen, causing severe pyogranulomatous pneumonia in foals aged 1-3 months. There is no effective vaccine currently available for the prevention of R. equi pneumonia. DNA vaccines are known to offer specific advantages over conventional vaccines. The aim of this study was to demonstrate efficacy of our recombinant DNA vaccine candidates, namely pcDNA3-Re1, pcDNA3-Re3 and pcDNA3-Re5 by combining a heat shock protein GroEL2 to a virulence-associated protein A (VapA) from R. equi to protect C3H/He mice against the R. equi infection. VapA was shown to be strongly recognised by sera from pneumonic foals. All vaccines elicited at least a doubling of the IgG2a/IgG1 ratio in comparison to the controls, indicating a bias to the Th1 response, which is postulated to be crucial for bacterial clearance and protective immunity against intracellular pathogens including R. equi. In addition, the immunised mice showed a significant reduction in R. equi in their lungs at 7 days after the aerosol challenge in comparison to PBS treated mice. However, examination of lung pathology 14 days after the challenge showed no gross differences in pathological changes between the unvaccinated and vaccinated animals. The lack of significant pathological changes suggests that the precise level of protection against R. equi pneumonia in the murine model of infection may not represent a true effectiveness of the potential vaccine candidates, indicating the mouse may not be the ideal non-equine model for vaccine studies and (or) the incomplete immunogenic antigen of vapA-based DNA vaccine constructs that mount an inadequate cell-mediated immune response against the R. equi infection.