Cytomegalovirus (CMV)

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a member of the Herpes virus group. It is a double stranded DNA virus and is known as Human Herpes Virus 5 in human hosts. CMV seropositivity is frequent in Western populations with a seroprevalence of 58% being reported in the U.S.1 In Africa, pooled prevalence studies demonstrate rates as high as 81.8% amongst HIV uninfected adults. Amongst the HIV infected population prevalence rates of 81.9% and 94.8% were seen in AIDS and asymptomatic HIV positive patients respectively.2 This is likely a reflection of impaired humoral immunity amongst those with AIDS. In a rural South African cohort, a 100% seroprevalence was demonstrated amongst HIV positive treatment naïve patients with a negative association noted between CD4 counts and IgG titres.3

Immune response induced by human cytomegalovirus DNA vaccine / 病毒学报

Human cytomegalovirus is an important pathogen which widely infects human. In this study, an eukaryotic expression vector containing human cytomegalovirus gB680 and pp65m genes was injected into BALB/c mice to explore the immune response. Firstly, the recombinant plasmid pVAX1/gB680+pp65m and plasmid pVAX1 were transfected into COS-7 cells respectively and the transiently expressed product was detected by RT-PCR and Western blot. The maxiprepared plasmid pVAX1/gB680 + pp65m and pVAX1 by alkaline lysis with SDS and purified by Sepharose 4FF column chromatography were then used to immunize BALB/c mice and the humoral and cellular immune responses were determined. Recombinant plasmid pVAX1/gB680+pp65m could be expressed in COS-7 cells, and could induce antibodies and cellular immune responses in BALB/c mice.