A multiepitope vaccine encoding four Eimeria epitopes with PLGA nanospheres: a novel vaccine candidate against coccidiosis in laying chickens

Table 3 Proportions of CD4⁺ (a) and CD8⁺ T lymphocytes in spleen lymphocytes at 14 and 21 days of age.

Age	Group	CD4⁺ T lymphocytes			CD8⁺ T lymphocytes
Age	Group	Value (%)	p value ^a	p value ^b	Value (%)	p value ^a	p value ^b
21 days	Blank (PBS)	19.048 ± 3.970	–	0.9994	19.208 ± 4.855	–	0.9881
	Control	17.953 ± 4.186	0.9994	–	21.030 ± 4.049	0.9881	–
	NSLC	26.946 ± 4.420	0.0464	0.0173	28.425 ± 5.813	0.0080	0.0482
	NSLC-FA	26.260 ± 5.421	0.0821	0.0325	30.685 ± 2.528	0.0007	0.0051
	NSLC-PLGA	32.569 ± 4.541	0.0002	<0.0001	41.134 ± 3.606	<0.0001	<0.0001
	NSLC-CS	28.073 ± 3.350	0.0168	0.0058	28.830 ± 4.595	0.0052	0.0331
	NSLC-ISCOM	25.197 ± 4.180	0.1826	0.0800	32.210 ± 4.506	0.0001	0.0009
	NSLC-RG1	28.520 ± 4.933	0.0110	0.0037	29.571 ± 3.937	0.0023	0.0161
	NSLC-201VG	27.437 ± 3.891	0.0302	0.0109	33.581 ± 3.852	<0.0001	0.0002
	NSLC-71VR	27.675 ± 4.686	0.0243	0.0086	32.699 ± 2.478	<0.0001	0.0005
28 days	Blank (PBS)	16.583 ± 4.664	–	0.9994	19.410 ± 3.465	–	0.9993
	Control	15.400 ± 3.979	0.9994	–	18.207 ± 5.022	0.9993	–
	NSLC	22.514 ± 4.024	0.2037	0.0839	26.787 ± 3.892	0.0606	0.0204
	NSLC-FA	24.411 ± 5.647	0.0461	0.0157	28.981 ± 4.470	0.0077	0.0022
	NSLC-PLGA	32.497 ± 5.747	<0.0001	<0.0001	40.015 ± 2.996	<0.0001	<0.0001
	NSLC-CS	25.545 ± 4.842	0.0164	0.0051	32.733 ± 5.027	0.0001	<0.0001
	NSLC-ISCOM	26.876 ± 3.046	0.0044	0.0013	30.957 ± 6.338	0.0009	0.0003
	NSLC-RG1	24.743 ± 2.579	0.0344	0.0114	41.597 ± 3.392	<0.0001	<0.0001
	NSLC-201VG	31.594 ± 4.466	<0.0001	<0.0001	38.189 ± 3.237	<0.0001	<0.0001
	NSLC-71VR	28.536 ± 3.334	0.0008	0.0002	37.496 ± 3.729	<0.0001	<0.0001

At 21 (seven days after the first immunization) and 28 (seven days after the second immunization) days of age, five animals in each group were sacrificed, and splenic lymphocytes were collected. Each sample was assessed once, and the results were estimated by one-way ANOVA followed by Dunnett’s test and are shown as the mean ± SD (n = 5). ^a and ^b were compared with the blank and control groups, respectively.

ISSN: 1297-9716