Enhancing control of porcine rotavirus through the identification of candidate B cell epitopes

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Persistent link to this item

Statistics
View Statistics

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Title

Enhancing control of porcine rotavirus through the identification of candidate B cell epitopes

Published Date

2020-08

Publisher

Type

Thesis or Dissertation

Abstract

From the moment piglets are born, their welfare is threatened by rotavirus (RV), a highly prevalent cause of acute diarrheal disease and mortality. Scientists and producers continue to grapple with how to improve vaccine and surveillance strategies to reduce infections. This ongoing challenge is due in part to a lack of information on which genetic changes within RV drive immune escape. The goals of this dissertation are twofold. We first aimed to investigate whether viral presence or detection in feces can be ameliorated by improved timing of prefarrow immunization. Our second aim was to elucidate B cell epitopes (BCEs) on the capsid proteins VP7 and VP4 to identify possible genetic drivers of vaccine immune escape and antigenic diversity. In Chapter 2, a longitudinal study on a commercial farm assessed whether the timing of prefarrow natural planned exposure (NPE) impacts the levels of RV detected in piglets’ feces. RV was continuously detected regardless of the number of NPE doses, and hypothesized that genetic changes at BCEs contribute to immune escape. We pursued this line of inquiry by elucidating BCEs with a bioinformatic approach. In Chapter 3, we validate and apply an in silico method to predict BCEs of RV VP7. In Chapter 4, we predict BCEs on the VP8*, the VP4 cleavage product that mediates host cell attachment. Alanine mutations at two predicted BCEs resulted in lower antisera binding titers, suggesting that the predicted sites were functional in antibody binding. This research provides evidence that computational approaches can yield immunologically-relevant information from RV sequence data alone and provides the first attempt at characterizing antigenic sites of RVB and RVC. Future surveillance efforts that focus on the predicted epitopes could help producers anticipate the accumulation of antigenic distance between vaccine and field strains, which will be crucial for improving vaccines and supporting piglet health.

Description

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. August 2020. Major: Veterinary Medicine. Advisors: Cheryl Dvorak, Douglas Marthaler. 1 computer file (PDF); xi, 158 pages.

Related to

Replaces

License

Collections

Series/Report Number

Funding information

Isbn identifier

Doi identifier

Previously Published Citation

Other identifiers

Suggested citation

Shepherd, Frances. (2020). Enhancing control of porcine rotavirus through the identification of candidate B cell epitopes. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/217156.

Content distributed via the University Digital Conservancy may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor. By using these files, users agree to the Terms of Use. Materials in the UDC may contain content that is disturbing and/or harmful. For more information, please see our statement on harmful content in digital repositories.