Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Journal of Virology logoLink to Journal of Virology
. 1991 Oct;65(10):5631–5635. doi: 10.1128/jvi.65.10.5631-5635.1991

The purified 14-kilodalton envelope protein of vaccinia virus produced in Escherichia coli induces virus immunity in animals.

C F Lai 1, S C Gong 1, M Esteban 1
PMCID: PMC249084  PMID: 1654459

Abstract

Vaccinia virus (VV) was successfully used as a live vaccine to eradicate smallpox, but the nature of viral proteins involved in eliciting viral immunity has not yet been identified. A potential candidate is a 14-kDa VV envelope protein that is involved in virus penetration at the level of virus-cell fusion, in cell-cell fusion late in infection, and in virus dissemination. The 14-kDa envelope protein has been produced in Escherichia coli, with properties similar to those of the native protein found in the virus particle and in infected cells (C. Lai, S. Gong, and M. Esteban, J. Biol. Chem. 256:22174-22180, 1990). In this investigation, we showed that mice immunized with purified VV 14-kDa protein synthesized in E. coli in the form of a monomer or a trimer develop high-titer neutralizing antibodies and are protected when challenged with lethal doses of wild-type VV. Our findings demonstrate that it is possible to confer protection against VV through immunization with the 14-kDa envelope protein.

Full text

PDF
5631

Images in this article

5632Image
on p.5632
5633Image
on p.5633

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Behbehani A. M. The smallpox story: life and death of an old disease. Microbiol Rev. 1983 Dec;47(4):455–509. doi: 10.1128/mr.47.4.455-509.1983. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Buller R. M., Palumbo G. J. Poxvirus pathogenesis. Microbiol Rev. 1991 Mar;55(1):80–122. doi: 10.1128/mr.55.1.80-122.1991. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Czerny C. P., Mahnel H. Structural and functional analysis of orthopoxvirus epitopes with neutralizing monoclonal antibodies. J Gen Virol. 1990 Oct;71(Pt 10):2341–2352. doi: 10.1099/0022-1317-71-10-2341. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Dallo S., Esteban M. Isolation and characterization of attenuated mutants of vaccinia virus. Virology. 1987 Aug;159(2):408–422. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(87)90480-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Dallo S., Rodriguez J. F., Esteban M. A 14K envelope protein of vaccinia virus with an important role in virus-host cell interactions is altered during virus persistence and determines the plaque size phenotype of the virus. Virology. 1987 Aug;159(2):423–432. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(87)90481-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Doms R. W., Blumenthal R., Moss B. Fusion of intra- and extracellular forms of vaccinia virus with the cell membrane. J Virol. 1990 Oct;64(10):4884–4892. doi: 10.1128/jvi.64.10.4884-4892.1990. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Essani K., Dales S. Biogenesis of vaccinia: evidence for more than 100 polypeptides in the virion. Virology. 1979 Jun;95(2):385–394. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(79)90493-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Goebel S. J., Johnson G. P., Perkus M. E., Davis S. W., Winslow J. P., Paoletti E. The complete DNA sequence of vaccinia virus. Virology. 1990 Nov;179(1):247-66, 517-63. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(90)90294-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Gong S. C., Lai C. F., Dallo S., Esteban M. A single point mutation of Ala-25 to Asp in the 14,000-Mr envelope protein of vaccinia virus induces a size change that leads to the small plaque size phenotype of the virus. J Virol. 1989 Nov;63(11):4507–4514. doi: 10.1128/jvi.63.11.4507-4514.1989. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Gong S. C., Lai C. F., Esteban M. Vaccinia virus induces cell fusion at acid pH and this activity is mediated by the N-terminus of the 14-kDa virus envelope protein. Virology. 1990 Sep;178(1):81–91. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(90)90381-z. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Lai C. F., Gong S. C., Esteban M. Structural and functional properties of the 14-kDa envelope protein of vaccinia virus synthesized in Escherichia coli. J Biol Chem. 1990 Dec 25;265(36):22174–22180. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Moss B., Flexner C. Vaccinia virus expression vectors. Annu Rev Immunol. 1987;5:305–324. doi: 10.1146/annurev.iy.05.040187.001513. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Murphy F. A. The promise and challenge of vaccinia-vectored vaccines. Res Virol. 1989 Sep-Oct;140(5):463–465. doi: 10.1016/s0923-2516(89)80125-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Oie M., Ichihashi Y. Modification of vaccinia virus penetration proteins analyzed by monoclonal antibodies. Virology. 1987 Apr;157(2):449–459. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(87)90287-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Payne L. G. Significance of extracellular enveloped virus in the in vitro and in vivo dissemination of vaccinia. J Gen Virol. 1980 Sep;50(1):89–100. doi: 10.1099/0022-1317-50-1-89. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Perkus M. E., Goebel S. J., Davis S. W., Johnson G. P., Limbach K., Norton E. K., Paoletti E. Vaccinia virus host range genes. Virology. 1990 Nov;179(1):276–286. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(90)90296-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Piccini A., Paoletti E. Vaccinia: virus, vector, vaccine. Adv Virus Res. 1988;34:43–64. doi: 10.1016/s0065-3527(08)60515-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Rodriguez J. F., Esteban M. Mapping and nucleotide sequence of the vaccinia virus gene that encodes a 14-kilodalton fusion protein. J Virol. 1987 Nov;61(11):3550–3554. doi: 10.1128/jvi.61.11.3550-3554.1987. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Rodriguez J. F., Esteban M. Plaque size phenotype as a selectable marker to generate vaccinia virus recombinants. J Virol. 1989 Feb;63(2):997–1001. doi: 10.1128/jvi.63.2.997-1001.1989. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Rodriguez J. F., Janeczko R., Esteban M. Isolation and characterization of neutralizing monoclonal antibodies to vaccinia virus. J Virol. 1985 Nov;56(2):482–488. doi: 10.1128/jvi.56.2.482-488.1985. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Rodriguez J. F., Paez E., Esteban M. A 14,000-Mr envelope protein of vaccinia virus is involved in cell fusion and forms covalently linked trimers. J Virol. 1987 Feb;61(2):395–404. doi: 10.1128/jvi.61.2.395-404.1987. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Rodriguez J. F., Rodriguez D., Rodriguez J. R., McGowan E. B., Esteban M. Expression of the firefly luciferase gene in vaccinia virus: a highly sensitive gene marker to follow virus dissemination in tissues of infected animals. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Mar;85(5):1667–1671. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.5.1667. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Rodriguez J. F., Smith G. L. IPTG-dependent vaccinia virus: identification of a virus protein enabling virion envelopment by Golgi membrane and egress. Nucleic Acids Res. 1990 Sep 25;18(18):5347–5351. doi: 10.1093/nar/18.18.5347. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Stern W., Dales S. Biogenesis of vaccinia: isolation and characterization of a surface component that elicits antibody suppressing infectivity and cell-cell fusion. Virology. 1976 Nov;75(1):232–241. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(76)90022-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Turner P. C., Moyer R. W. The molecular pathogenesis of poxviruses. Curr Top Microbiol Immunol. 1990;163:125–151. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-75605-4_5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Virology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES