title: Serologic specificity of antibodies to herpes simplex virus glycoprotein B present in human sera. Analysis by transient expression of glycoprotein B-derivatives.
abstract: Glycoprotein B (gB) is an essential glycoprotein of herpes simplex virus (HSV) and a major target for cellular and humoral immune response in the infected host. In the present study, we have analyzed the pattern of reactivity of a panel of 23 HSV-seropositive patient sera using as test antigens gB derivatives made in COS cells in a transient expression assay. Our results show that nearly all the sera tested, reacted with wild-type gB or tgB (772) (that lacks 102 amino acids cytoplasmic domain). However, when tgB (477 amino acids) or gBdl (an inframe deletion between amino acids 477-772) were used as test antigens only 12 out of 23 sera tested positive. Further analysis using competition assays revealed that these sera can be classified into at least two groups: (i) that contain gB-reactive antibodies reactive to intact gB or tgB (772); (ii) that contain antibodies that recognize all forms of gB-derivatives tested. The results presented here underscore the potential limitations in using certain truncated forms of gB as antigens for subunit vaccine or in the serodiagnosis of HSV infection.
authors.affiliation: Viral Carcinogenesis Laboratory, Linus Pauling Institute, Palo Alto, California.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Forghani
mesh_terms: D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000276:immunology*; D000918:Antibody Specificity; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000276:immunology; D002460:Cell Line; D005814:Genes, Viral; D006561:Herpes Simplex / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000276:immunology; D010957:Plasmids; D015531:Radioimmunoprecipitation Assay; D018139:Simplexvirus / Q000276:immunology*; D014162:Transfection; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D000956:Antigens, Viral; D010446:Peptide Fragments; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins; C040495:glycoprotein B, Simplexvirus