title: Influence of antigen conformation and mode of presentation on the antibody and protective responses against human respiratory syncytial virus: relevance for vaccine development.
abstract: Human respiratory syncytial virus (hRSV) remains one of the most prevalent human pathogens for which a vaccine is still missing. After several decades of hesitant efforts, particularly after the harmful effects of a formalin-inactivated hRSV vaccine trial in the 1960s, hRSV vaccine development has received new impetus from structure-based studies of its main protective antigen: the fusion (F) glycoprotein. This article reviews studies done with hRSV F, either in pieces (e.g. epitopes) or as soluble or membrane-anchored molecules folded in different conformations or presented under different forms. Knowledge gained from these studies has provided the basis for novel vaccines that are now in different phases of development and has generated tools and reagents for developing other control measures such as prophylactic or therapeutic antibodies against this virus, which remains the most important cause of hospitalization in infants and one of the leading global causes of infant mortality.
authors.affiliation: a Centro Nacional de Microbiología and CIBER de Enfermedades Respiratorias , Instituto de Salud Carlos III , Madrid , Spain.
authors.forename: José A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Melero
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000276:immunology*; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D000939:Epitopes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D011487:Protein Conformation; D017510:Protein Folding; D022261:Respiratory Syncytial Virus Vaccines / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D018113:Respiratory Syncytial Virus, Human / Q000276:immunology*; D014760:Viral Fusion Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D000956:Antigens, Viral; D000939:Epitopes; C526850:F protein, human respiratory syncytial virus; D022261:Respiratory Syncytial Virus Vaccines; D014760:Viral Fusion Proteins
keywords: RSV; antibody responses; fusion protein conformations