Adjuvant effects of interleukin-18 in DNA vaccination against infectious bursal disease virus in chickens

Interleukin-18 (IL-18) is an important cytokine with multiple functions in innate and acquired immunity. In this study, chicken IL-18 was evaluated for its adjuvant effects on the protective immunity of a DNA vaccine carrying the VP243 gene of IBDV. Groups of 14-day-old SPF chickens were given twice at 2-week intervals with 100 μg of the plasmid DNA vaccine pCAGVP243, pCAGVP243-IL-18 and the blank vector pCAGGS, respectively, and challenged with vvIBDV (HLJ0504 strain) 2 weeks later. Chickens immunized with plasmid pCAGVP243-IL-18 carrying both VP243 and IL-18 genes induced significantly higher levels of antibodies, lymphocyte proliferation responses and of the cytokines IL-4 and IFN-γ than those injected with pCAGVP243 encoding the VP243 gene alone. Furthermore, pCAGVP243-IL-18 provided higher protection (93%) against vvIBDV challenge in chickens than pCAGVP243 (60%), as evidenced by the absence of clinical signs, mortality, and bursal atrophy. These results indicated that the cytokine IL-18 could enhance the immune responses and protection efficacy of DNA vaccine against IBDV infection in chickens, highlighting the potential value of chicken IL-18 as an adjuvant in the prevention of vvIBDV infection.