Department of Pathogenic Biology, Department of Special Medicine, School of Basic Medicine, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China.
Virulence. 2023 Dec;14(1):2169488. doi: 10.1080/21505594.2023.2169488.
Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection is prevalent worldwide, and there is currently no licenced HCMV vaccine to control it. Therefore, developing an effective HCMV vaccine is a significant priority. Because of their excellent immunogenicity, the crucial components of HCMV, phosphoprotein 65 (pp65) and glycoproteins H (gH) are potential target proteins for HCMV vaccine design. In this study, we predicted and screened the dominant antigenic epitopes of B and T cells from pp65 and gH conjugated with the carrier protein cross-reacting material 197 (CRM197) to form three peptide-CRM197 vaccines (pp65-CRM197, gH-CRM197, and pp65-CRM197+gH-CRM197). Furthermore, the immunogenicity of the peptide-CRM197 vaccines and their effects on dendritic cells (DCs) were explored. The results showed that three peptide-CRM197 vaccines could induce maturation of DCs through the p38 MAPK signalling pathway and promote the release of proinflammatory factors, such as TNF-α and interleukin (IL) -6. Meanwhile, the peptide-CRM197 vaccines could effectively activate T cell and humoral immunity, which were far better than the inactivated HCMV vaccine. In conclusion, we constructed three peptide-CRM197 vaccines, which could induce multiple immune effects, providing a novel approach for HCMV vaccine design.
人巨细胞病毒（HCMV）感染在全球范围内普遍存在，目前尚无许可的 HCMV 疫苗来控制它。因此，开发有效的 HCMV 疫苗是当务之急。由于其出色的免疫原性，HCMV 的关键成分磷酸蛋白 65（pp65）和糖蛋白 H（gH）是 HCMV 疫苗设计的潜在靶蛋白。在这项研究中，我们预测并筛选了与载体蛋白交叉反应物质 197（CRM197）结合的 pp65 和 gH 的 B 细胞和 T 细胞优势抗原表位，形成三种肽-CRM197 疫苗（pp65-CRM197、gH-CRM197 和 pp65-CRM197+gH-CRM197）。此外，还研究了肽-CRM197 疫苗的免疫原性及其对树突状细胞（DC）的影响。结果表明，三种肽-CRM197 疫苗可通过 p38 MAPK 信号通路诱导 DC 成熟，并促进 TNF-α和白细胞介素（IL）-6 等促炎因子的释放。同时，肽-CRM197 疫苗可有效激活 T 细胞和体液免疫，效果远优于灭活的 HCMV 疫苗。总之，我们构建了三种肽-CRM197 疫苗，可诱导多种免疫效应，为 HCMV 疫苗设计提供了新方法。
