Rabies Virus Glycoprotein with a Consensus Amino Acid Sequence and a Lysosome Targeting Signal Causes Effective Production of Antibodies in DNA-Immunized Mice.

Starodubova, E. S.; Kuzmenko, Y. V.; Pankova, E. O.; Latanova, A. A.; Preobrazhenskaya, O. V.; Karpov, V. L.

Safe and effective anti-rabies vaccines are intensely sought worldwide. DNA vaccines have already shown their efficacy and safety and have occupied a special place in the field. Two prototype anti-rabies DNA vaccines were compared for the potential to induce virus-specific antibody production. One vector contained a codon-optimized gene with a territory-adapted consensus sequence of the rabies virus glycoprotein. The other one expressed the same glycoprotein in fusion with a c-CD63 lysosome targeting motif at the C terminus. ELISA of serum samples from immunized mice showed that the c-CD63 variant induced more efficient antibody production and shifted the IgG2a/IgG1 ratio towards the Th2-type immune response. The results gave grounds to believe that the approach successfully applied to the rabies glycoprotein may help to develop new-generation anti-rabies vaccines.

RABIES virus; GLYCOPROTEINS; AMINO acid sequence; LYSOSOMES; DNA vaccines

Molecular Biology, 2018, Vol 52, Issue 2, p269

0026-8933

Academic Journal

10.1134/S0026893318020164