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. 2017 Feb 22;8(21):34481–34497. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.15605

Figure 7. Neutralization assay of KSHV-eGFP+ with 1:9 diluted sera from mice immunized with KSHV VLPs.

Figure 7

Neutralization assays were performed as described in Figure 6 and Materials and Methods. Data from three independent experiments at a 1:9 serum dilution is presented. The percent inhibition of infection is shown as the mean (top of bar) ± the SEM (error bar above bar) for each serum group. Known KSHV positive plasma (488HO4) served as positive control and neutralized >80% of KSHV infection. Serum from mice immunized with TNE (data not shown) served as negative control and was used to normalize the percent infection. As a single immunogen, gpK8.1 VLPs stimulated comparable neutralizing antibody activity to that of UV-inactivated KSHV (positive control). In contrast, UV-inactivated KSHV stimulated higher titers of neutralizing antibodies compared to gB (p = 0.0316) or gH/gL (p = 0.0486). Mice immunized with the combination of gB and gH/gL VLPs had a better neutralizing antibody response than those immunized with either gB (p = 0.0268), or gH/gL (p = 0.0397) VLPs as single immunogens. Immunization with all VLP combinations containing gpK8.1 (gpK8.1-gB, gpK8.1-gH/gL and gpK8.1-gB-gH/gL) stimulated comparable neutralizing antibody activity to UV-KSHV serum.