Projects
RATIONAL DESIGN AND IMMUNOGENICITY EVALUATION OF MRNA-BASED VACCINE AGAINST AFRICAN SWINE FEVER VIRUS
Topic: African Swine Fever
Summary
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<b>Animal Health Component</b>
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<b>Research Effort Categories</b><br>
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<div class="rec_leftcol">Developmental</div>
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Objectives & Deliverables
<b>Project Methods</b><br> Engineered vaccine candidate antigens will be formulated into LNP-mRNA and validated for antigen expression using in vitro testing methods, including flow cytometry, Western blot, confocal microscopy. LNP-mRNA will be evaluated in mice first before testing in pigs. The goal of the mouse study is to select the optimal engineering strategies and combinations for induction of strong B cell and T cell immunities. Immunogenicity assessment will be initially conducted in mice.During termination, spleen will be harvested for isolation of splenocytes.Based on the outcomes of mouse study, the best-performed candidate antigens will be administrated to 4-week-old piglets at a dosage of 30 µg/antigen/pig intramuscularly. Serum and blood samples will be collected weekly for assessing humoral immunity by ELISA. At week 5 during termination of the study, Spleen and draining lymph node will be collected for assessing cellular immunity by ELISpot and flowcytometry. Part of the tissues will be embedded in cryomold containing Tissue-Tek OCT compound for germinal center analysis by tissue imaging.
Principle Investigator(s)
Planned Completion date: 14/09/2026
Effort: $225,000.00
Project Status
ACTIVE
Principal Investigator(s)
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Researcher Organisations
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
United Kingdom