Incorporation of GM-CSF or CD40L Enhances the Immunogenicity of Hantaan Virus-Like Particles.
A safe and effective Hantaan virus (HTNV) vaccine is highly desirable because HTNV causes an acute and often fatal disease (hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, HFRS). Since the immunity of the inactivated vaccine is weak and the safety is poor, HTNV virus-like particles (VLPs) offer an attractive and safe alternative. These particles lack the viral genome but are perceived by the immune system as virus particles. We hypothesized that adding immunostimulatory signals to VLPs would enhance their efficacy. To accomplish this enhancement, we generated chimeric HTNV VLPs containing glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) or CD40 ligand (CD40L) and investigated their biological activity in vitro. The immunization of mice with chimeric HTNV VLPs containing GM-CSF or CD40L induced stronger humoral immune responses and cellular immune responses compared to the HTNV VLPs and Chinese commercial inactivated hantavirus vaccine. Chimeric HTNV VLPs containing GM-CSF or CD40L also protected mice from an HTNV challenge. Altogether, our results suggest that anchoring immunostimulatory molecules into HTNV VLPs can be a potential approach for the control and prevention of HFRS.
['Cheng|Lin-Feng|LF|', 'Wang|Fang|F|', 'Zhang|Liang|L|', 'Yu|Lan|L|', 'Ye|Wei|W|', 'Liu|Zi-Yu|ZY|', 'Ying|Qi-Kang|QK|', 'Wu|Xing-An|XA|', 'Xu|Zhi-Kai|ZK|', 'Zhang|Fang-Lin|FL|']
D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic D000818:Animals D000914:Antibodies, Viral D023201:CD40 Ligand D004195:Disease Models, Animal D016178:Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor D018063:Hantaan virus D006480:Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear D051379:Mice D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic D058425:Vaccines, Virus-Like Particle
GM-CSF CD40L virus-like particles Hantaan virus baculovirus expression system