Re-burying Artificially Exposed Surface of Viral Subunit Vaccines Through Oligomerization Enhances Vaccine Efficacy.

ABSTRACT: Viral subunit vaccines often suffer low efficacy. We recently showed that when taken out of the context of whole virus particles, recombinant subunit vaccines contain artificially exposed surface regions that are non-neutralizing and reduce their efficacy, and thus these regions need to be re-buried in vaccine design. Here we used the envelope protein domain III (EDIII) of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), a subunit vaccine candidate, to further validate this important concept for subunit vaccine designs. We constructed monomeric EDIII, dimeric EDIII via a linear space, dimeric EDIII via an Fc tag, and trimeric EDIII via a foldon tag. Compared to monomeric EDIII or linearly linked dimeric EDIII, tightly packed EDIII oligomers via the Fc or foldon tag induce hig

SUBMITTER: Han X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9278648 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature