DNA vaccine induces SARS-nucleoprotein-specific immune response.

2004 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A DNA vaccine induced SARS-nucleoprotein-specific immune response.

According to recent research published in the journal Immunology Letters, "Induction of effective cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) and/or a specific antibody against conserved viral proteins may be essential to the development of a safe and effective severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-Cov) vaccine. DNA vaccination represents a new strategy for induction of humoral and cellular immune response. To determine the ability of SARS-Cov nucleoprotein (N protein) to induce antiviral immunity, in this report, we established a stable C2C12 line expressing SARS-Cov N protein, which was used as a target for specific CTL assay."

"We also expressed recombinant N proteins in Escherichia coli and prepared N protein-specific polyclonal antibodies," said Min-Sheng Zhu and collaborators at the Huadong Research Institute For Medical Biotechnics and Nanjing Normal University. "C3H/He mice were immunized with N protein-expressible pcDN-fn vector by intramuscular injections. We found that the DNA vaccination induced both N protein-specific antibody and specific CTL activity to the target. When C3H/He mice were immunized by three separate injections, high antibody titer (1:3200-1:6400, average titer is 1:4580) and high CTL ...