title: Strain-specific neutralizing antibody responses against human cytomegalovirus envelope glycoprotein N.
abstract: The human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) gM-gN complex is a major target of virus-neutralizing activity, and gN subtypes induce strain-specific antibodies. However, the biological significance of HCMV gN polymorphisms is not known. Neutralizing antibody responses against HCMV gN recombinant viruses were investigated at study entry in 80 healthy HCMV-seropositive women who were monitored for the appearance of new antibody specificities against linear strain-specific epitopes on glycoproteins gH and gB as evidence of HCMV reinfection. Neutralizing activity against all four gN recombinant viruses was seen in 74% of subjects, and 61% of subjects had strain-specific responses. Significantly fewer women (9/39 subjects [23%]) with serological evidence of reinfection had strain-specific neutralizing responses than the women without reinfection (21/41 subjects [51%]). Women with antibodies against at least one of the four linear gB and gH antigens at study entry had higher neutralizing titers against gN-1 (P = 0.006) and gN-2 (P = 0.007). Neutralizing titers of ≥400 against gN-3 (P = 0.043) and gN-4 (P = 0.049) at study entry were associated with longer times to serological evidence of reinfection. The findings demonstrate that HCMV gN elicits strain-specific neutralizing antibody responses and that broader anti-gN neutralizing activity may provide some protection from reinfection with a different virus strain.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA. spati@peds.uab.edu
authors.forename: Sunil K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Pati
authors.forename: Zdenek
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Novak
authors.forename: Misty
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Purser
authors.forename: Nitin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Arora
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mach
authors.forename: William J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Britt
authors.forename: Suresh B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Boppana
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D057134:Antibodies, Neutralizing / Q000097:blood*; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D003587:Cytomegalovirus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D057134:Antibodies, Neutralizing; D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins; C417883:glycoprotein N, Human cytomegalovirus