Elsevier

Virology

Volume 250, Issue 1, 10 October 1998, Pages 151-163
Virology

Regular Article
DNA-Based and Alphavirus-Vectored Immunisation with PrM and E Proteins Elicits Long-Lived and Protective Immunity against the Flavivirus, Murray Valley Encephalitis Virus

https://doi.org/10.1006/viro.1998.9357Get rights and content
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Abstract

The immunogenicity and protective efficacy of DNA-based vaccination with plasmids encoding the membrane proteins prM and E of the flavivirus Murray Valley encephalitis virus (MVE) were investigated. Gene gun-mediated intradermal delivery of DNA encoding the prM and E proteins elicited long-lived, virus-neutralising antibody responses in three inbred strains of mice and provided protection from challenge with a high titer inoculum of MVE. Intramuscular DNA vaccination by needle injection also induced MVE-specific antibodies that conferred resistance to challenge with live virus but failed to reduce virus infectivityin vitro. The two routes of DNA-based vaccination with prM and E encoding plasmids resulted in humoral immunty with distinct IgG subtypes. MVE-specific IgG1antibodies were always prevalent after intradermal DNA vaccination via a gene gun but not detected when mice were immunised with DNA by the intramuscular route or infected with live virus. We also tested a Semliki Forest virus replicon as vector for a flavivirus prM and E protein-based subunit vaccine. Single-cycle infections in mice vaccinated with packaged recombinant replicon particles elicited durable, MVE-specific, and virus-neutralising antibody responses.

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D. Thomas

1

Present address: Medical Research Institute, Baseline Rd., Colombo 8, Sri Lanka.

2

To whom reprint requests should be addressed. Fax: 61–62492595. E-mail:[email protected].