Studies in the development of Japanese encephalitis vaccine: expression of virus envelope glycoprotein V3 (E) gene in yeast.

A safe, effective and economical vaccine is required for the prevention of Japanese encephalitis (JE), a disease with high mortality and grave sequelae, which is prevalent in Japan and other countries in east, south-east and southern Asia. As the initial step to produce a second-generation vaccine, recombinant DNA technology was utilized to express the JE virus envelope glycoprotein V3 (E) gene in yeast cells.This report describes the construction of a yeast expression vector in which a cDNA clone covering the V3 gene was connected to the acid-phosphatase promoter of a yeast vector plasmid. Successful expression of the V3 gene was detected by ELISA and Western blotting using monoclonal antibodies against JE V3. Immunization of mice with the V3 antigen expressed in yeast produced limited but definite levels of anti-JE antibodies which could neutralize JE virus. The results are an encouraging step in the development of a practical second-generation JE vaccine.