A live attenuated RH?ompdc?uprt mutant of Toxoplasma gondii induces strong protective immunity against toxoplasmosis in mice and cats

Background Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular apicomplexan parasite and is responsible for zoonotic toxoplasmosis. It is essential to develop an effective anti-T. gondii vaccine for the control of toxoplasmosis, and this study is to explore the immunoprotective effects of a live attenuated vaccine in mice and cats.Methods First, the ompdc and uprt genes of T. gondii were deleted through the CRISPR-Cas9 system. Then, the intracellular proliferation and virulence of this mutant strain were evaluated. Subsequently, the immune responses induced by this mutant in mice and cats were detected, including antibody titers, cytokine levels, and subsets of T lymphocytes. Finally, the immunoprotective effects were evaluated by challenge with tachyzoites of different strains in mice or cysts of the ME49 strain in cats. Furthermore, to discover the effective immune element against toxoplasmosis, passive immunizations were carried out. GraphPad Prism software was used to conduct the log-rank (Mantel-Cox) test, Student's t test and one-way ANOVA.Results The RH?ompdc?uprt were constructed by the CRISPR-Cas9 system. Compared with the wild-type strain, the mutant notably reduced proliferation (P < 0.05). In addition, the mutant exhibited virulence attenuation in both murine (BALB/c and BALB/c-nu) and cat models. Notably, limited pathological changes were found in tissues from RH?ompdc?uprt-injected mice. Furthermore, compared with nonimmunized group, high levels of IgG (IgG1 and IgG2a) antibodies and cytokines (IFN-?, IL-4, IL-10, IL-2 and IL-12) in mice were detected by the mutant (P < 0.05). Remarkably, all RH?ompdc?uprt-vaccinated mice survived a lethal challenge with RH?ku80 and ME49 and WH6 strains. The immunized sera and splenocytes, especially CD8(+) T cells, could significantly extend (P < 0.05) the survival time of mice challenged with the RH Delta ku80 strain compared with naive mice. In addition, compared with nonimmunized cats, cats immunized with the mutant produced high levels of antibodies and cytokines (P < 0.05), and notably decreased the shedding numbers of oocysts in feces (95.3%).Conclusions The avirulent RH?ompdc?uprt strain can provide strong anti-T. gondii immune responses, and is a promising candidate for developing a safe and effective live attenuated vaccine.