• Wu Ou, Josie Delisle, Jerome Jacques, Joanna Shih, Graeme Price, Jens H Kuhn, Vivian Wang, Daniela Verthelyi, Gerardo Kaplan, and Carolyn A Wilson.
• Division of Cellular and Gene Therapies, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Bldg, 29B, Room 5NN22, 8800 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
• Virol J. 2012 Jan 1; 9: 32.

BackgroundThe genus Ebolavirus includes five distinct viruses. Four of these viruses cause hemorrhagic fever in humans. Currently there are no licensed vaccines for any of them; however, several vaccines are under development. Ebola virus envelope glycoprotein (GP1,2) is highly immunogenic, but antibodies frequently arise against its least conserved mucin-like domain (MLD). We hypothesized that immunization with MLD-deleted GP1,2 (GPΔMLD) would induce cross-species immunity by making more conserved regions accessible to the immune system.MethodsTo test this hypothesis, mice were immunized with retrovirus-like particles (retroVLPs) bearing Ebola virus GPΔMLD, DNA plasmids (plasmo-retroVLP) that can produce such retroVLPs in vivo, or plasmo-retroVLP followed by retroVLPs.ResultsCross-species neutralizing antibody and GP1,2-specific cellular immune responses were successfully induced.ConclusionOur findings suggest that GPΔMLD presented through retroVLPs may provide a strategy for development of a vaccine against multiple ebolaviruses. Similar vaccination strategies may be adopted for other viruses whose envelope proteins contain highly variable regions that may mask more conserved domains from the immune system.

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