A single dose of dendrimer B₂T peptide vaccine partially protects pigs against foot-and-mouth disease virus infection

Abstract

Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) causes a highly contagious disease of cloven-hoofed animals whose control relies on efficient vaccination. We have reported that dendrimer peptide BT, with two copies of FMDV B-cell epitope VP1 (136-154) linked through maleimide units to T-cell epitope 3A (21-35)], elicits potent B- and T-cell specific responses and confers solid protection in pigs to type-O FMDV challenge after two doses of peptide. Herein we now show that BT evokes specific protective immune responses after administration of a single dose of either 2 or 0.5 mg of peptide. High titers of ELISA and neutralizing antibodies against FMDV were detectable at day 15 post-immunization. Likewise, activated T cells and induced IFN-γ response to in vitro recall with FMDV peptides were also detected by the same day. Further, in 70% of BT-vaccinated pigs, full protection-no clinical signs of disease-was observed upon virus challenge at day 25 post-immunization. These results strengthen the potential of BT as a safe, cost-effective candidate vaccine conferring adequate protection against FMDV with a single dose. The finding is particularly relevant to emergency scenarios permitting only a single shot immunization.