Correctly folded - but not necessarily functional - influenza virus neuraminidase is required to induce protective antibody responses in mice.

Correctly folded - but not necessarily functional - influenza virus neuraminidase is required to induce protective antibody responses in mice. Vaccine. 2020 Sep 15;: Authors: McMahon M, Strohmeier S, Rajendran M, Capuano C, Ellebedy AH, Wilson PC, Krammer F Abstract The influenza virus neuraminidase (NA) plays an integral role in the influenza virus life cycle through the release of virions from infected cells. NA-specific antibodies can impede virus replication by binding to the NA and blocking its enzymatic activity, providing significant protection from influenza-associated morbidity and mortality. NA included in current seasonal influenza virus vaccines exhibits low immunogenicity, potentially caused by compromised antigenic integrity during vaccine production. To determine how certain types of "stress" could influence the antigenicity of NA we performed a series of in vitro experiments where we treated NA with formalin, EDTA or heat and measured the impact of these treatments on NA enzymatic activity and structural integrity. We found that increasing concentrations of formalin or EDTA and increasing temperature abolished the enzymatic activity of both H1N1, H3N2, and influenza B purified viruses and recombinant NA proteins. However, formalin and EDTA treatment did not drastically affect conformational epitopes found on the NA, whereas heat treatment abolished conformational epitopes. We next performed a vaccination experiment, w...
Source: Vaccine - Category: Allergy & Immunology Authors: Tags: Vaccine Source Type: research