Newcastle disease virus (NDV), infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) and chicken anemia virus (CAV) are economically important pathogens in poultry worldwide. Outbreaks of these diseases occur although they are controlled through vaccination using live attenuated or inactivated viruses. In addition, the chickens vaccinated with classical strains are not fully protected against challenged with variant field strains.

We have successfully constructed and patented a recombinant NP protein of NDV (PI 20004837) which can be expressed in abundance in bacterial cells as ring-like particles. A region in the primary structure of this protein which can be used to display foreign epitopes without impairing the particle assembly has been defined. The antigenic sequences of the VP1 and VP2 of CAV and the VP2 of IBDV (which have also been well studied in our laboratories) can then be fused to the NP constructs as a multi-component vaccine. In addition, full-length cDNA of NDV can be assembled from genomic overlapping cDNA fragments and cloned into transcription vectors for development of extremely lentogenic NDV as vaccine. We have also developed and patented a nested RT-PCR ELISA test for identifying various strains of NDV (PI20005526) as well as a peptide which recognizes NDV (PI 20013687).

Based on these research findings and the current NDV and CAV outbreaks in West Malaysia this project is undertaken to develop a multi-component vaccine against NDV, IBDV and CAV; construct a recombinant lentogenic NDV vaccine and develop a novel diagnostic test to distinguish pathogenic NDV strains from the vaccine strains.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Project Title:
Development of novel therapeutic and diagnostic reagents from Newcastle disease virus

 

Period of the project : 3 Years (2001 - 2004)

Achievements

Progress/Achievements for year one

New process
· An NP-ELISA-based test has been developed and is currently being evaluated.
· Another test based on real-time PCR has been developed and compared with the nested RT-PCR-ELISA assay, which was developed earlier.

Patents filed - 2
· Patents being applied (for US patent): Nucleotide sequences of the nucleocapsid (NP) and phosphoprotein (P) genes of a Malaysian velogenic Newcastle Disease virus strain AF2240 and the production of the NP and P proteins in Escheria coli.
· Patent filed in Malaysia: The nucleopcapsid protein of Newcastle disease virus as a carrier for immunogens (PI 200221709).

Publication
· 10 scientific papers in referred journals.
· 28 scientific papers in proceedings and abstracts