Bilge-Dagalp, SevalFarzani, Touraj AligholipourDogan, FiratYoldar, Zeynep AkkutayOzkul, AykutAlkan, FerayDonofrio, Gaetano2024-09-182024-09-1820211517-83821678-4405https://doi.org/10.1007/s42770-021-00525-zhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12483/8332In recent years, Bovine herpesvirus 4 (BoHV-4) has emerged as an attractive gene delivery viral vector, mainly for vaccination purposes in the veterinary field. In the present study, a new infectious clone of the BoHV-4 genome carrying a bacterial artificial chromosome vector (BoHV-4-BAC) was developed by homologous recombination in mammalian cell culture and bacterial systems, and exploited to express a truncated form of glycoprotein D (tgD) of Bovine herpesvirus 1 (BoHV-1) (BoHV-4-tgD increment TK) as a vaccine candidate. This construct's immunogenicity was compared to a DNA vector expressing the same antigen (pC-tgD) in a BALB/c mouse model. After the mice were immunized, total and specific antibody responses, cytokine responses, total splenocyte cells proliferation/cytotoxicity, and virus neutralization assays were conducted to analyze the immune response elicited by both constructs. Mice from both vaccine groups developed significant humoral and cellular immune responses after a booster dose regime was conducted on day 28 post-injection. In almost all immunological assays, BoHV-4-tgD Delta TK induced as high an immune response as pC-tgD. In both vaccine constructs, neutralizing antibodies were a significant determining factor in protection against BoHV-1, even after the first injection. We conclude that a BoHV-4-based viral vector offers an effective immunization strategy as an alternative to DNA-based immunization platforms, at least to combat BoHV-1.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessBovine herpesvirus 4Viral vectorBovine herpesvirus 1TgDImmune responseArticle5231119113310.1007/s42770-021-00525-z342553092-s2.0-85110688289Q3WOS:000673021700002Q4