Co-Expression of Chicken IL-2 and IL-7 Enhances the Immunogenicity and Protective Efficacy of a VP2-Expressing DNA Vaccine against IBDV in Chickens

Chicken infectious bursal disease (IBD) is still incompletely controlled worldwide. Although IBD virus (IBDV) VP2 DNA vaccine was considered a safe vaccine for IBD prevention, the immunogenicity by itself remains poor, resulting in the failure of effectively protecting chickens from infection. We and others demonstrated that chicken IL-2 (chIL-2) and chIL-7 have the capacity to enhance the immunogenicity of the VP2 DNA vaccine. However, whether chIL-2 and chIL-7 can mutually enhance the immunogenicity of VP2 DNA vaccine and thereby augment the latter’s protection efficacy remains unknown. By using chIL-2/chIL-7 bicistronic gene vector to co-immunize the chickens together with the VP2 DNA vaccine, we now show that chIL-2 and chIL-7 significantly increased IBDV VP2-specific antibody titers, T cell proliferation, and IFN-γ production, resulting in the ultimate enhancement of vaccine-induced protection efficacy relative to that of chIL-2 or chIL-7 gene vectors alone. These results suggest that chIL-2 and chIL-7 can mutually enhance VP2 DNA vaccine’s efficacy, thereby establishing a concrete foundation for future optimization of IBDV VP2 DNA vaccine to prevent/treat chicken IBD.