Lu Xinya, Chen Yao, Bai Bingke, Hu Hui, Tao Ling, Yang Jihong, Chen Jianjun, Chen Ze, Hu Zhihong, Wang Hanzhong
State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China.
Immunology. 2007 Dec;122(4):496-502. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2567.2007.02676.x. Epub 2007 Aug 3.
Virus-like particles (VLPs) represent a promising vaccine against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS CoV). In this study, recombinant baculovirus vAcS and vAcME were constructed to express the S protein and the M and E proteins of SARS CoV, respectively. Electron microscope analysis demonstrated the formation of VLPs in vAcME and vAcS coinfected insect cells. Mice immunized four times with VLPs developed high antibody titres against SARS CoV. In addition, VLPs elicited cell-mediated immunity as demonstrated by enhanced interferon-gamma and interleukin-4 production. VLPs also conferred protective immunity against the infection of Spike protein pseudotyped murine leukaemia virus. Our findings demonstrate that SARS CoV VLPs are immunogenic and can elicit strong SARS CoV-specific humoral and cellular immune responses in mice. This is the first study describing the immunogenicity of SARS CoV VLPs, providing valuable data for developing a protective vaccine against SARS CoV infection.
病毒样颗粒（VLPs）是一种有前景的针对严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒（SARS-CoV）的疫苗。在本研究中，构建了重组杆状病毒vAcS和vAcME，分别表达SARS-CoV的S蛋白以及M和E蛋白。电子显微镜分析表明，在vAcME和vAcS共感染的昆虫细胞中形成了VLPs。用VLPs免疫四次的小鼠产生了针对SARS-CoV的高抗体滴度。此外，如通过增强的γ干扰素和白细胞介素-4产生所证明的，VLPs引发了细胞介导的免疫。VLPs还赋予了针对刺突蛋白假型化鼠白血病病毒感染的保护性免疫。我们的研究结果表明，SARS-CoV VLPs具有免疫原性，并且能够在小鼠中引发强烈的SARS-CoV特异性体液和细胞免疫反应。这是第一项描述SARS-CoV VLPs免疫原性的研究，为开发针对SARS-CoV感染的保护性疫苗提供了有价值的数据。
