Clostridium perfringens Epsilon Toxin Mutant I51C as a Recombinant Vaccine Candidate Against Enterotoxemia

Clostridium perfringens type B and D strains produce epsilon toxin (ETX), which can lead to enterotoxemia, an extremely lethal disease that has significant consequences for the farming of domestic ruminants, specifically sheep and goats. The bacterin-toxoids/toxoids enterotoxemia vaccines need time-consuming detoxification steps. Genetically derived toxoids (GTs) can be the alternative vaccines against ETX-associated enterotoxemia. This study was aimed to design, synthesize, and evaluate of five epsilon toxin mutants of C. perfringens by site-directed mutagenesis (SDM).

In this study, five ETX mutants (H106P, I51C, V56C, A114C, and F118C), as ETX-GTs, were designed and synthesized by SDM, which were then cloned in pET-26b (+) and expressed in Escherichia coli /BL21 (DE3). The expression of recombinant ETX-GTs was evaluated by SDS-PAGE, blotting, and ELISA and their toxicity was evaluated by the residual toxicity test based on BP Pharmacopoeia, 2021.

The findings showed that the ETX-GTs could be considered alternative vaccine candidates against ETX-associated enterotoxemia.

These data suggest that I51C mutant could form the basis of an improved recombinant vaccine against enterotoxemia.