Reporter assay-based cell line for rapid and early determination of vaccine-induced protection against foot-and-mouth disease virus

• Research unit: FSVO
• Project number: 1.10.12

Key words (German)

MKSV, Diagnosetests, Surveillance, schützende Antikörper, Fc-Rezeptor exprimierende Reporterzelllinie.

Key words (English)

FMDV, protective antibody measurement, FcR-bearing cell line reporter assay, diagnosis/surveillance.

Short description (German)

Ein grosses Problem bei der Bekämpfung der Maul- und Klauenseuche (MKS) mittels Impfung stellt die hohe antigene Variabilität des MKS Virus (MKSV) dar. Impfstoffe müssen regelmässig in Impf/Challenge-Infektionen, welche erhebliche Kosten und schweres Leiden bei den Tiere verursachen, getestet werden. Aus diesem Grund planen wir in diesem Projekt
die Entwicklung eines robusten und leicht anzuwendenden Testsystems um die biologischen Eigenschaften von Antikörpern gegen das MKSV zu messen. Das System soll eine akkurate Messung erlauben, ob ein Impfstoffes gegen ein bestimmtes MKSV Isolates schützen würde. Das Projekt, welches in das EU Konsortium FMD-DISCONVAC integriert und mit Stiftung 3R Project G367 verbunden wäre, basiert auf neuen Erkenntnissen wie Antiköper biologisch gegen Viren wirken und hat grosses potenzial bisher verwendeten all zu simple serologischen Tests zu verbessern. Unser spezifisches Ziel ist eine Fc-Rezeptor exprimierende Reporterzelllinien herzustellen, um mit hoher Sensitivität Antikörperopsoniertes MKSV messen zu können. Ein solches Testsystem hat ausserdem ein hohes Potenzial um die Immunogenität zahlreicher anderer Impfstoffe zu messen. Ein weiterer Vorteil ist die Möglichkeit mit rekombinanten Antigenen zu arbeiten, wodurch der Test kein Hochsicherheitslabor erfordern würde. Unser Ziel ist es solche moderne Testsysteme für eine moderne Labordiagnose routinemässig einsatzfähig zu machen.

Short description (English)

FMD vaccination, essential for combating outbreaks, is problematic due to the high antigenic variation of FMDV. Vaccines are selected using vaccination/challenge experiments, which are expensive and engender severe animal suffering. This project, which integrates into the EU consortium FMD-DISCONVAC, will develop a robust, easily applied cell-based assay for measuring the biological characteristics of antibody induced by vaccination. This will permit a more accurate determination of the validity of vaccination in terms of the likely protective nature of the antibody induced. Effectively, the project will move laboratory diagnosis and surveillance away from the old-fashioned, simple and naïve serological assays, which only measure the chemical reaction between antibody and antigen, and into the 21st century with a determination of the biological aspects of humoral immune defence. Based on accumulated immunological knowledge, and the link with the EU project FMD-DISCONVAC and Stiftung 3R project G367, this project will develop FcR-carrying reporter cell lines to analyse FcR-dependent response against antibody-opsonised FMDV. Such assays have high generic potential, in application to the analysis of any vaccine. Moreover, they lend themselves to assays employing recombinant antigens, thus moving the test away from highlevel biosafety laboratories.

Project aims (English)

The present project links with the EU-funded project (FMD-DISCONVAC, no. 226556) to develop in vitro assays for the routine detection of protective antibody induced by vaccination against FMDV. This will also link with a recent Stiftung-3R project (G367) which will analyse the relationship between in vitro anti-FMDV antibody characteristics and protection in vivo.
The overall aim is to develop a cell-based assay system to permit determination of the relationship between protection and specific antibody avidity, which can easily applied in any diagnostic laboratory, including those which are not under BSL3 or BSL4 conditions. The EU-funded project (FMD-DISCONVAC, no. 226556) will provide the necessary serum samples for testing the assay, and the 3R project will provide the characterization of these sera to allow only those of immediate value to be applied in the present project for the development of the cell-based assay. Accordingly, the present project will integrate with the efforts of the FMD-DISCONVAC project and the G3673R project to establish a reporter cell line to analyse FcR-dependent opsonisation of FMDV by neutralising as well as non-neutralising sera samples and monoclonal antibody collections.

Publications / Results (English)

Related documents

• Datenblatt 1.10.12 MJB 2012 Schmitt [PDF] 55 kB

URL-addresses (German)

1.10.12 Summerfield FMD-virus für food and mouth disease (063-504/3/6)