Identification of novel Haemophilus parasuis serovar 5 vaccine candidates using an immunoproteomic approach

Haemophilus parasuis is the aetiological agent of Glässer's disease, which is responsible for cases of fibrinous polyserositis, polyarthritis and meningitis. No vaccine is known that provides cross-protection against all serovars. The identification of novel immunoprotective antigens would undoubtedly contribute to the development of efficient subunit vaccines. In the present study, an immunoproteomic approach was used to analyze secreted proteins of H. parasuis and six proteins with high immunogenicity were identified. Five of them were successfully expressed, and their immunogenicity and protective efficacy were assessed in a mouse challenge model. All five proteins elicited strong humoral antibody and cellular immune responses in mice. They all effectively reduced the growth of H. parasuis in mouse organs and conferred different levels of protection (40–80%) against challenge. IgG subtype analysis revealed that the five proteins induce a bias toward a Th1-type immune response, and a significant increase was observed in the cytokine levels of IL-2, IFN-γ and Th2-specific IL-4 in the culture supernatants of splenocytes isolated from immunized mice. The results suggest that both Th1 and Th2 responses are involved in mediating protection. These data suggest that the five proteins could be potential subunit vaccine candidates for use to prevent H. parasuis infection. Haemophilus parasuis can cause huge financial loss in the swine industry worldwide. There are still no vaccines which can provide cross-protection against all serovars. To address this need, we applied an immunoproteomic approach involving 2-DE, MALDI-TOF/TOF MS and Western-blot to identify the secreted proteins which may be able to provide immunoprotection to this disease. We identified six immunogenic proteins, and the immunogenicity and protective efficacy were validated. This result provides a foundation for developing novel subunit vaccines against Haemophilus parasuis.