title: Complete protection of mice against lethal murine cytomegalovirus challenge by immunization with DNA vaccines encoding envelope glycoprotein complex III antigens gH, gL and gO.
abstract: Human cytomegalovirus infects the majority of humanity which may lead to severe morbidity and mortality in newborns and immunocompromised adults. Humoral and cellular immunity are critical for controlling CMV infection. HCMV envelope glycoprotein complexes (gC I, II, III) represent major antigenic targets of antiviral immune responses. The gCIII complex is comprised of three glycoproteins, gH, gL, and gO. In the present study, DNA vaccines expressing the murine cytomegalovirus homologs of the gH, gL, and gO proteins were evaluated for protection against lethal MCMV infection in the mouse model. The results demonstrated that gH, gL, or gO single gene immunization could not yet offer good protection, whereas co-vaccination strategy apparently showed effects superior to separate immunization. Twice immunization with gH/gL/gO pDNAs could provide mice complete protection against lethal salivary gland-derived MCMV (SG-MCMV) challenge, while thrice immunization with pgH/pgL, pgH/pgO or pgL/pgO could not provide full protection. Co-vaccination with gH, gL and gO pDNAs elicited robust neutralizing antibody and cellular immune responses. Moreover, full protection was also achieved by simply passive immunization with anti-gH/gL/gO sera. These data demonstrated that gCIII complex antigens had fine immunogenicity and might be a promising candidate for the development of HCMV vaccines.
authors: College of Life Science, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081, Hunan, China; State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, Hubei, China.
authors: Huadong
authors: H
authors: Wang
authors: College of Life Science, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081, Hunan, China.
authors: Chaoyang
authors: C
authors: Huang
authors: Shanghai Institute of Biological Products, Shanghai, 200052, China.
authors: Jinrong
authors: J
authors: Dong
authors: State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, Hubei, China.
authors: Yanfeng
authors: Y
authors: Yao
authors: Xie Tu Community Medical Service Center, Xuhui District of Shanghai, Shanghai, 200030, China.
authors: Zhenyuan
authors: Z
authors: Xie
authors: Shanghai Institute of Biological Products, Shanghai, 200052, China.
authors: Xueying
authors: X
authors: Liu
authors: Xinhua Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University of Medicine, Shanghai, 200092, China.
authors: Wenjie
authors: W
authors: Zhang
authors: College of Life Science, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081, Hunan, China.
authors: Fang
authors: F
authors: Fang
authors: College of Life Science, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081, Hunan, China; Shanghai Institute of Biological Products, Shanghai, 200052, China.
authors: Ze
authors: Z
authors: Chen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000276:immunology; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000235:genetics*; D057809:HEK293 Cells; D006801:Humans; D007111:Immunity, Cellular; D007116:Immunization, Passive; D051379:Mice; D018146:Muromegalovirus / Q000276:immunology*; D014611:Vaccination / Q000379:methods*; D019444:Vaccines, DNA / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D000956:Antigens, Viral; D006023:Glycoproteins; D019444:Vaccines, DNA; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins