Rhinovirus Replicons Allow Mucosal Immunization With RSV Fusion Protein.(Brief Article)

2001 JUN 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) --

by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Human rhinovirus vectors allow the successful in vitro expression of human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) fusion (F) protein following mucosal immunization, report researchers with Eli Lilly & Co.

G. Dollenmaier and associates proposed that human rhinovirus (HRV) replicons would be useful vectors for mucosal vaccines against respiratory infections. Their success, however, would hinge on their ability to express glycosylated proteins, since many respiratory immunogens are glycosylated.

Using RSV F as their model glycoprotein, the researchers transfected H1-HeLa cells with HRV replicon Delta P1FVP3. Delta P1FVP3 replicated and eventually expressed the F protein. F protein expression was, in fact, determined to be dependent on Delta P1FVP3 replication rather than a result of input RNA translation, said Dollenmaier et al.

Although most of the F protein remained immature, a detectable fraction was processed into the mature glycosylated subunit F1, via the Golgi apparatus, the researchers reported ("Membrane-associated respiratory syncytial virus F protein expressed from a human rhinovirus type 14 vector is immunogenic," Virology, 2001;281(2):216-230).

The researchers also were able to accumulate the F protein by generating packaged Delta P1FVP3 replicons in transfected HeLa cells by co-expression of ...