Department of Virology, State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, 100071, China.
State Key Laboratory of Virology, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, China.
Sci Rep. 2017 Aug 30;7(1):10047. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-10595-5.
The global spread of Zika virus (ZIKV) as well as its unexpected link to infant microcephaly have resulted in serious public health concerns. No antiviral drugs against ZIKV is currently available, and vaccine development is of high priority to prepare for potential ZIKV pandemic. In the present study, a truncated E protein with the N-terminal 90% region reserved (E90) from a contemporary ZIKV strain was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli, purified by a Ni-NTA column, and characterized by Western blotting assays. Immunization with recombinant E90 induced robust ZIKV-specific humoral response in adult BALB/c mice. Passive transfer of the antisera from E90-immunized mice conferred full protection against lethal ZIKV challenge in a neonatal mice model. Our results indicate that recombinant ZIKV E90 described here represents as a promising ZIKV subunit vaccine that deserves further clinical development.
寨卡病毒（ZIKV）的全球传播及其与婴儿小头畸形的意外关联引起了严重的公共卫生关注。目前尚无针对 ZIKV 的抗病毒药物，疫苗的开发是为潜在的 ZIKV 大流行做准备的当务之急。在本研究中，从当代 ZIKV 株中克隆并在大肠杆菌中表达了保留 N 端 90%区域的截短 E 蛋白（E90），通过 Ni-NTA 柱进行纯化，并通过 Western blot 分析进行了表征。用重组 E90 免疫成年 BALB/c 小鼠可诱导强烈的 ZIKV 特异性体液反应。来自 E90 免疫小鼠的抗血清的被动转移可在新生小鼠模型中完全抵抗致死性 ZIKV 攻击。我们的结果表明，这里描述的重组 ZIKV E90 代表了一种有前途的 ZIKV 亚单位疫苗，值得进一步临床开发。
