AUTHOR=Zhao Caiquan , Gao Jie , Wang Yongzhi , Ji Lina , Qin Hui , Hu Wei , Yang Yang 

TITLE=A Novel Rabies Vaccine Based on a Recombinant Bovine Herpes Virus Type 1 Expressing Rabies Virus Glycoprotein

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2022.931043

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2022.931043

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=Rabies is a highly prevalent zoonotic disease and a public health threat worldwide. Currently licensed rabies vaccines are effective but less are known they would provide protection for cattle. This present study describes the construction of a novel recombinant bovine herpesvi-rus type I (BHV-1) expressing rabies virus glycoprotein (RABV G) instead of its own gE glycoprotein (gE) by CRISPR-Cas9 and homolo-gous recombination technology (BHV-1-ΔgE-G). Insertion of RABV G gene is stable after 20 rounds of in vitro passaging and the recom-binant virus replicates to high titers in MDBK cells. The RABV G expresses in the recombinant virus infected cells and on the virion sur-face of BHV-1-ΔgE-G. One single immunization with BHV-1-ΔgE-G activated dendritic cells (DCs) and B cells, furthermore induced a protective immune response in mice against severe lethal challenge infection. Protective level of RABV specific virus neutralizing antibody (VNA) were detected in intramuscular immunized mice and cattle without any clinical symptoms. This research demonstrated the BHV-1 vector based RABV vaccine is a potential candidate for cattle.