Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T10:05:17.634Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Long-term passage of tachyzoites in tissue culture can attenuate virulence of Neospora caninum in vivo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 June 2006

P. M. BARTLEY
Affiliation:
Moredun Research Institute, Pentlands Science Park, Bush Loan, Penicuik EH26 0PZ, Scotland, UK
S. WRIGHT
Affiliation:
Moredun Research Institute, Pentlands Science Park, Bush Loan, Penicuik EH26 0PZ, Scotland, UK
J. SALES
Affiliation:
Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland, James Clerk Maxwell Building, The King's Buildings, Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, Scotland, UK
F. CHIANINI
Affiliation:
Moredun Research Institute, Pentlands Science Park, Bush Loan, Penicuik EH26 0PZ, Scotland, UK
D. BUXTON
Affiliation:
Moredun Research Institute, Pentlands Science Park, Bush Loan, Penicuik EH26 0PZ, Scotland, UK
E. A. INNES
Affiliation:
Moredun Research Institute, Pentlands Science Park, Bush Loan, Penicuik EH26 0PZ, Scotland, UK

Abstract

To determine whether prolonged in vitro passage would result in attenuation of virulence in vivo, Neospora caninum tachyzoites were passaged for different lengths of time in vitro and compared for their ability to cause disease in mice. Groups of Balb/c mice were inoculated intraperitoneally with 5×106 or 1×107 of low-passage or high-passage N. caninum tachyzoites. The mice were monitored for changes in their demeanour and body weight, and were culled when severe clinical symptoms of murine neosporosis were observed. Mice inoculated with the high-passage parasites survived longer (P<0·05), and showed fewer clinical symptoms of murine neosporosis, compared to the mice receiving the low-passage parasites. The parasite was detected in the brains of inoculated mice using immunohistochemistry and ITS1 PCR. Tissue cysts containing parasites were seen in mice inoculated with both low-passage and high-passage parasites. When the in vitro growth rates of the parasites were compared, the high-passage parasites initially multiplied more rapidly (P<0·001) than the low-passage parasites, suggesting that the high-passage parasites had become more adapted to tissue culture. These results would suggest that it is possible to attenuate the virulence of N. caninum tachyzoites in mice through prolonged in vitro passage.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2006 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Atkinson, R. A., Harper, P. A. W., Ryce, C., Morrison, D. A. and Ellis, J. T. ( 1999). Comparison of biological characteristics of two isolates of Neospora caninum. Parasitology 118, 363370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baszler, T. V., Long, M. T., McElwain, T. F. and Mathison, B. A. ( 1999). Interferon-γ and interleukin-12 mediate protection to acute Neospora caninum infection in BALB/C mice. International Journal for Parasitology 29, 16351646.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benjamini, Y. and Hochberg, Y. ( 1995). Controlling the false discovery rate: a practical and powerful approach to multiple testing. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B 57, 289300.Google Scholar
Benjamini, Y. and Yekutieli, D. ( 2001). The control of the false discovery rate in multiple testing under dependency. Annals of Statistics 29, 11651188.Google Scholar
Bjerkås, I., Mohn, S. F. and Presthus, J. ( 1984). Unidentified cyst-forming sporozoon causing encephalomyelitis and myositis in dogs. Zeitschrift für Parasitenkunde 70, 271274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bos, H. J. ( 1993). Development of live vaccine against ovine toxoplasmosis. NATO ASI Series H78, 231243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buxton, D. ( 1993). Toxoplasmosis: the first commercial vaccine. Parasitology Today 9, 335337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buxton, D. and Innes, E. A. ( 1995). A commercial vaccine for ovine toxoplasmosis. Parasitology 110 (Suppl.), S11S16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buxton, D., Maley, S. W., Thomson, K. M., Trees, A. J. and Innes, E. A. ( 1997). Experimental infection of non-pregnant and pregnant sheep with Neospora caninum. Journal of Comparative Pathology 117, 116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buxton, D., Maley, S., Wright, S., Thomson, K., Rae, A. G. and Innes, E. A. ( 1998). The pathogenesis of experimental neosporosis in pregnant sheep. Journal of Comparative Pathology 118, 267279.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conrad, P. A., Sverlow, K. W., Anderson, M., Rowe, J. D., Bondurant, R. H., Tuter, G., Breitmeyer, R., Palmer, C., Thurmond, M., Ardans, A., Dubey, J. P., Duhamel, G. and Barr, B. ( 1993). Detection of serum antibody in cattle with natural or experimental Neospora infections. Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation 5, 572578.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daneshvar, H., Coombs, G. H., Hagen, P. and Philips, S. ( 2003). Leishmania mexicana and Leishmania major attenuation of wild type parasites and vaccination with the attenuated lines. Journal of Infectious Diseases 187, 16621668.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dubey, J. P. ( 2003). Neosporosis in cattle. Journal of Parasitology 89, S42S56.Google Scholar
Dubey, J. P., Carpenter, J. L., Speer, C. A., Topper, M. J. and Uggla, A. ( 1988). Newly recognised fatal protozoan disease in dogs. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 192, 12691285.Google Scholar
Eperon, S., Brönniman, K., Hemphill, A. and Gottstein B. ( 1999). Susceptibility of B-cell deficient C57BL/6 (μMT) mice to Neospora caninum infection. Parasite Immunology 21, 225236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frenkel, J. K., Dubey, J. P. and Hoff, R. L. ( 1976). Loss of stages after continuous passage of Toxoplasma gondii and Besnoitia jellisoni. Journal of Protozology 23, 421424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, R., Ilhan, T., Kivar, E., Wilkie, G., Preston, P. M., Darghouth, M., Somerville, R. and Adamson, R. ( 1999). Mechanism(s) of attenuation of Theileria annulata vaccine cell lines. Tropical Medicine and International Health 4, A78A84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmdahl, O. J. M. and Mattsson, J. G. ( 1996). Rapid and sensitive identification of Neospora caninum by in vitro amplification of the internal transcriber spacer 1. Parasitology 112, 177182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Innes, E. A., Panton, W. R. M., Marks, J., Trees, A. J., Holmdahl, J. and Buxton, D. ( 1995). Interferon gamma inhibits the intracellular multiplication of Neospora caninum as shown by incorporation of 3H Uracil. Journal of Comparative Pathology 113, 95100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Innes, E. A., Wright, S., Maley, S. W., Rae, A. G., Schock, A., Kirvar, E., Bartley, P., Hamilton, C., Carey, I. and Buxton, D. ( 2001). Protection against vertical transmission in bovine neosporosis. International Journal for Parasitology 31, 15231534.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Innes, E. A., Adrianarivo, A. G., Björkman, C., Williams, D. J. L. and Conrad P. A. ( 2002). Immune responses to Neospora caninum and prospects for vaccination. Trends in Parasitology 18, 497504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Innes, E. A., Wright, S., Bartley, P., Maley, S., Macaldowie, C., Esteban-Redondo, I. and Buxton, D. ( 2005). The host parasite relationship of bovine neosporosis. Veterinary Immunology and Immunopathology 108, 2936.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khan, I. A., Schwartzman, J. D., Foneska, S. and Kasper, L. H. ( 1997). Neospora caninum: Role for immune cytokines in host immunity. Experimental Parasitology 85, 2434.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindsay, D. S. and Dubey, J. P. ( 1989). Immunohistochemical diagnosis of Neospora caninum in tissue sections. American Journal of Veterinary Research 50, 19811983.Google Scholar
Lindsay, D. S., Lenz, S. D., Cole, R. A., Dubey, J. P. and Blagburn, B. L. ( 1995). Mouse model for central nervous system Neospora caninum infections. Journal of Parasitology 81, 313315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindsay, D. S., Lenz, S. D., Blagburn, B. L. and Brake, D. A. ( 1999). Characterization of temperature-sensitive strains of Neospora caninum in mice. Journal of Parasitology 85, 6467.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Long, M. T., Baszler, T. V. and Mathison, B. A. ( 1998). Comparison of intracerebral parasite load, lesion development and systemic cytokines in mouse strains infected with Neospora caninum. Journal of Parasitology 84, 316320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lundén, A., Wright, S., Allen, J. E. and Buxton, D. ( 2002). Immunisation of mice against neosporosis. International Journal for Parasitology 32, 867876.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McAllister, M. M., Bjorkman, C., Anderson-Sprecher, R. and Rogers, D. G. ( 2000). Evidence of point-source exposure to Neospora caninum and protective immunity in a herd of beef cows. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 217, 881887.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nishikawa, Y., Ikeda, H., Fukumoto, S., Xuan, X., Nagasawa, H. and Otsuka, H. ( 2000). Immunisation of dogs with a canine herpes virus vector expressing Neospora caninum surface protein NcSRS2. International Journal for Parasitology 30, 11671171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nishikawa, Y., Inoue, N., Xuan, X., Nagasawa, H., Igarashi, I., Fujisaki, K., Otsuka, H. and Mikami, T. ( 2001). Protective efficacy of vaccination by recombinant vaccinia virus against Neospora caninum infection. Vaccine 19, 13811390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Connell, E., Wilkins, M. F. and Te Punga, W. A. ( 1988). Toxoplasmosis in sheep II. The ability of a live vaccine to prevent lamb losses after an intravenous challenge with Toxoplasma gondii. New Zealand Veterinary Journal 36, 14.Google Scholar
Pipano, E., Shkap, V., Kreigel, Y., Leibovitz, B., Savitsky, I. and Fish, I. ( 2002). Babesia bovis and Babesia bigemina persistence of infection in Friesian cows following vaccination with live antibabesial vaccines. Veterinary Journal 164, 6468.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preston, P. M., Jackson, L. A., Sutherland, I. A., Brown, D. J., Schofield, J., Bird, T., Sanderson, A. and Brown, C. G. D. ( 2001). Theileria annulata: Attenuation of a schizont-infected cell line by prolonged in vitro culture is not caused by the preferential growth of particular host cell types. Experimental Parasitology 98, 188205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quinn, H. E., Miller, C. M. D., Ryce, C., Windsor, P. A. and Ellis, J. T. ( 2002). Characterisation of an outbred pregnant mouse model of Neospora caninum infection. Journal of Parasitology 88, 691696.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schock, A., Innes, E. A., Yamane, I., Latham, S. M. and Wastling, J. M. ( 2001). Genetic and biological diversity among isolates of Neospora caninum. Parasitology 123, 1323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trees, A. J., Davidson, H. C., Innes, E. A. and Wastling, J. M. ( 1999). Towards evaluating the economic impact of bovine neosporosis. International Journal for Parasitology 29, 11951200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkins, M. F., O'Connell, E. and Te Punga, W. A. ( 1988). Toxoplasmosis in sheep III. Further evaluation of the ability of a live Toxoplasma gondii vaccine to prevent lamb losses and reduce congenital infection following an experimental oral challenge. New Zealand Veterinary Journal 36, 8689.Google Scholar
Williams, D. J., Guy, C. S., Smith, R. F., Guy, F., McGarry, J. W., McKay, J. S. and Trees, A. J. ( 2003). First demonstration of protective immunity against foetopathy in cattle with latent Neospora caninum infection. International Journal for Parasitology 33, 10591065.CrossRefGoogle Scholar