"Differential detection of interleukin-12 and -23 proteins in chicken coccidiosis"

Authors: KIM, WH - US Department Of Agriculture (USDA); Lillehoj, Hyun

Submitted to: American Association of Avian Pathologists
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/30/2019
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Interleukin (IL) -12 and -23 belong to IL-12 cytokine family and are heterodimeric cytokines consisting of two covalently linked subunits, IL-12; p35 (IL-12a) and p40 (IL-12/IL-23ß) and IL-23; p19 (IL-23a) and p40. As p40 subunit is shared between them, other subunits are shared with other cytokines and it makes difficult to detect specific cytokine in this type of cytokines. Although they are cloned in chicken, there is no assay to differentially detect either IL-12 or IL-23 because detection of heterodimeric cytokines needs at least two specific antibodies binding each subunit. In the present study, we generated mouse monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against three subunits, p19, p35 and p40 to develop novel sandwich ELISAs enabling differentially detection between IL-12 and -23. Using those systems, the protein levels of those cytokines were measured in chicken coccidiosis. We found that serum IL-12 protein was highly increased in an early stage of disease while IL-23 protein in serum remained in a low level throughout the in vivo study. In conclusion, our results showed that the mAbs and ELISAs developed in this study are valuable immune tools for poultry research to obtain a new insight to on chicken T cell immunity and that IL-12 rather than IL-23 are involved in immune response induced by chicken coccidiosis.