Potential Vaccine Targets against Rabbit Coccidiosis by Immunoproteomic Analysis

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify antigens for a vaccine or drug target to control rabbit coccidiosis. A combination of 2-dimensional electrophoresis, immunoblotting, and mass spectrometric analysis were used to identify novel antigens from the sporozoites of Eimeria stiedae. Protein spots were recognized by the sera of New Zealand rabbits infected artificially with E. stiedae. The proteins were characterized by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF/TOF-MS) analysis in combination with bioinformatics. Approximately 868 protein spots were detected by silver-staining, and a total of 41 immunoreactive protein spots were recognized by anti-E. stiedae sera. Finally, 23 protein spots were successfully identified. The proteins such as heat shock protein 70 and aspartyl protease may have potential as immunodiagnostic or vaccine antigens. The immunoreactive proteins were found to possess a wide range of biological functions. This study is the first to report the proteins recognized by sera of infected rabbits with E. stiedae, which might be helpful in identifying potential targets for vaccine development to control rabbit coccidiosis.

Deaths Due to Mixed Infections with Passalurus ambiguus, Eimeria spp. and Cyniclomyces guttulatus in an Industrial Rabbit Farm in Greece

“…However, further research is needed for most of them in order to confirm their effectiveness. Likewise, vaccine development against E. stiedae, E. magna, E. intestinalis and E. media represents a future prospect for the prevention of hepatic and intestinal coccidiosis [74][75][76][77]. In our case, the administration of the commercial solution containing oregano in the drinking water at the dose rate mentioned above, successfully boosted host immunity.…”

Pathological changes and antigen localization in the small intestine of rabbits infected with Eimeria magna

“…Studies on coccidial antigens have mostly identified a variety of common antigens and proteins, but they have been mostly limited to chicken coccidiosis; only E. stiedai has been previously studied in rabbits (Song et al, 2017). Liu et al (2020) identified twenty-one Eimeria acervulina sporozoite antigens that can be recognised by antisera from chickens infected with E. acervulina, E. tenella or E. necatrix.…”

Coccidiosis: A Parasitic Disease of Significant Importance in Rabbits

“…A recent trial for the preparation of a vaccine against hepatic coccidiosis was carried out. Using immuno-proteomic analysis of sporozoite proteins of E. stiedae, the immuno-reactive proteins were recognized by the sera of infected rabbits, which may be helpful for the production of a vaccine (Song et al, 2017). However, production of a vaccine on a commercial and field scale is still distant and limited, may be due to the high cost of production and the time required for the processes of…”

“…Different kinds of herbal extracts (Indrasanti et al, 2017;Sorour et al, 2018;Rivero-Perez et al, 2019) and acidifiers (Shkromada et al, 2019) showed successful preliminary results in treating coccidiosis in rabbits. Efficient vaccines are very important for the prevention of rabbit coccidiosis (Song et al, 2017), but so far, no vaccine is available for rabbits.…”