title: Vaccinia virus: a novel approach for molecular engineering of peptide vaccines.
abstract: One of the more promising new approaches for producing prophylactic vaccines involves the genetic engineering of vaccinia virus (VV) strains to express a single protein, a portion of a protein, or a single epitope from a heterologous pathogen. As an example, the application of this approach to the prevention of streptococcal-related diseases is considered. Experiments are described in which several generations of VV-based recombinant vaccines were constructed that expressed various derivatives of the M protein gene from Streptococcus pyogenes (serotype 6). These recombinants were used to demonstrate the high-level expression, stability, and antigen authenticity of the bacterial proteins expressed in infected tissue culture cells. When tested in a mouse model system, immunization with the VV recombinants expressing specific subdomains of the M protein conferred protection to challenge from both homologous and heterologous serotypes of pathogenic streptococci.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Oregon State University, Corvallis 97331-3804.
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Hruby
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D005818:Genetic Engineering; D006801:Humans; D010455:Peptides / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D013290:Streptococcal Infections / Q000276:immunology; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic / Q000235:genetics*; D014616:Vaccinia virus / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D010455:Peptides; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic