Immunogenicity of a bacterial ghost delivered dengue virus serotype 2 envelope protein domain III followed by an intramuscular protein boosting strategy in mice model

Immunogenicity of a bacterial ghost delivered dengue virus serotype 2 envelope protein domain III followed by an intramuscular protein boosting strategy in mice model

This study aimed to investigate whether bacterial ghosts (BGs), empty cell envelopes of a gram-negative bacterium, delivering envelope protein domain III (EDIII) of dengue virus (DENV) serotype 2 could induce protective immune responses against dengue infection. In this study, we constructed Salmonella Typhimurium BGs expressing and delivering EDIII (BG-EDIII) and evaluated these ghosts for their immunogenicity studies in C57BL/6 mice. Our results demonstrated that the mice vaccinated once orally with BG-EDIII followed by an intramuscular boosting with a recombinant EDIII protein elicited significantly higher humoral and cell-mediated immune responses compared to the BGs alone vaccinated group (p<0.001). Upon challenge with DENV2, significantly lower viral load and liver damage was observed in BG-EDIII vaccinated group than BGs alone control group (p<0.05). The outcomes of this study revealed the ability of BG- EDIII to stimulate immune response with no observable damage to the vital organs.