Objective
The aim of this project is to establish a means of protecting farm animals against gastrointestinal and respiratory infections through the expression of large quantities of appropriate immunogens in plants.
Material expressed in plants will be administered orally to experimental animals to stimulate mucosal immunity.
To express immunogens in plants, a series of vectors based on RNA plant viruses will be developed. The use of such vectors has a number of significant advantages over stable genetic transformation particularly in regard to the expression levels which are obtainable.
Four viruses from different families will be investigated for their ability to act as practical vectors: tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), pea early browning virus (PEBV), plum pox virus (PPV) and cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV). All four viruses reach high titres in infected plants and infectious cDNA clones of all four are currently available, allowing genetic modifications to be made. In all four cases it has already been demonstrated that the genomic RNAs can be modified without abolishing infectivity. Although all four viruses have genomes consisting of positive-sense RNA, they belong to different virus families and have different expression and replication strategies. An important goal of this collaborative project is to make direct comparisons between the efficiencies of various plant virus systems. To this end, regions within the viral genomes which can tolerate the insertion of heterologous sequences will be delimited. Initial experiments will involve the insertion of reporter genes and the effects of the presence of the inserts on the ability of the viruses to replicate and spread throughout the host plants will be determined. Subsequently immunogenic regions from selected animal viruses will be expressed in plants using the vectors.
The animal pathogens which will be studied in this project are members of the corona virus and arterivirus groups which cause severe economic losses on farms in the EU. Domains on the spike protein which can confer protective immunity will be identified and the sequences inserted into the plant virus-based vectors either alone or next to genes encoding mucosal adjuvants. The modified plant viruses will be inoculated on to appropriate host plants and the expression of the desired material in the plants will be monitored. Extracts of plant material will be prepared for administration to experimental animals and the ability of the immunologically active material to stimulate mucosal immunity will be examined.
The approach to vaccinology developed in this project will be generic and applicable to a wide variety of diseases. The vaccines developed will be extremely safe as the plant virus vectors are not capable of causing diseases in animals. The ability to directly administer immunotherapeutic material in feed will be a great step forward in vaccinology.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology virology
- medical and health sciences medical biotechnology genetic engineering
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics genomes viral genomes
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy pharmaceutical drugs vaccines
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics RNA
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
NR4 7UH Norwich
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.