Oral immunisation of mice with a recombinant rabies virus vaccine incorporating the heat-labile enterotoxin B subunit of Escherichia coli in an attenuated Salmonella strain.

To investigate effective new rabies vaccines, a fusion protein consisting of the rabies virus (RV) glycoprotein and the heat-labile enterotoxin B subunit of Escherichia coli (LTB) was successfully constructed and delivered in a live attenuated Salmonella strain LH430. Mice were immunised with LH430 carrying pVAX1-G, pVAX1-G-LTB or pVAX1-ori-G-LTB. The antibody titres of mice immunised with oral LH430 carrying pVAX1-G-LTB or pVAX1-ori-G-LTB were significantly higher than those of pVAX1-G-immunised mice. The results of the challenge with the rabies virus standard strain (CVS-11) showed that the LH430 strain carrying the G-LTB gene induced immunity and elevated IL-2 levels in immunised mice ((∗∗)P<0.01), whereas LH430 carrying pVAX1-G did not contribute to protection. These results show that LH430 carrying recombinant G-LTB could provide overall immunity against challenge with CVS-11 and should be considered to be a potential rabies vaccine.