title: Recombinant receptor-binding domain of SARS-CoV spike protein expressed in mammalian, insect and E. coli cells elicits potent neutralizing antibody and protective immunity.
abstract: Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a newly emerging infectious disease. The potential recurrence of the disease from animal reservoirs highlights the significance of development of safe and efficient vaccines to prevent a future SARS epidemic. In this study, we expressed the recombinant receptor-binding domain (rRBD) in mammalian (293T) cells, insect (Sf9) cells, and E. coli, respectively, and compared their immunogenicity and protection against SARS-CoV infection in an established mouse model. Our results show that all rRBD proteins expressed in the above systems maintained intact conformation, being able to induce highly potent neutralizing antibody responses and complete protective immunity against SARS-CoV challenge in mice, albeit the rRBD expressed in 293T cells elicited stronger humoral immune responses with significantly higher neutralizing activity (P<0.05) than those expressed in Sf9 and E. coli cells. These results suggest that all three rRBDs are effective in eliciting immune responses and protection against SARS-CoV and any of the above expression systems can be used for production of rRBD-based SARS subunit vaccines. Preference will be given to rRBD expressed in mammalian cells for future evaluation of the vaccine efficacy in a non-human primate model of SARS because of its ability to refold into a native conformation more readily and to induce higher level of neutralizing antibody responses than those expressed in E. coli and insect cells.
authors.affiliation: Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute, New York Blood Center, New York, NY 10065, USA.
authors.forename: Lanying
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Du
authors.forename: Guangyu
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Chris C S
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Shihui
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Zhonghua
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Hongxiang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Yuxian
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Yusen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Bo-Jian
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Shibo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D002460:Cell Line; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D007313:Insecta; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D009500:Neutralization Tests; D045473:Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D045169:Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D064370:Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus; D022223:Vaccines, Subunit / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D014765:Viral Vaccines / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D064370:Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus; D022223:Vaccines, Subunit; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins; D014765:Viral Vaccines
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