Enhancing immune protection against MERS-CoV: the synergistic effect of proteolytic cleavage sites and the fusion peptide and RBD domain targeting VLP immunization.
Front Immunol
; 14: 1201136, 2023.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-20240735
ABSTRACT
Introduction:
The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a zoonotic infectious virus that has caused significant outbreaks in the Middle East and beyond. Due to a highly mortality rate, easy transmission, and rapid spread of the MERS-CoV, it remains as a significant public health treat. There is currently no licensed vaccine available to protect against MERS-CoV.Methods:
In this study, we investigated whether the proteolytic cleavage sites and fusion peptide domain of the MERS-CoV spike (S) protein could be a vaccine target to elicit the MERS-CoV S protein-specific antibody responses and confer immune protection against MERS-CoV infection. Our results demonstrate that immunization of the proteolytic cleavage sites and the fusion peptide domain using virus-like particle (VLP) induced the MERS-CoV S protein-specific IgG antibodies with capacity to neutralize pseudotyped MERS-CoV infection in vitro. Moreover, proteolytic cleavage sites and the fusion peptide VLP immunization showed a synergistic effect on the immune protection against MERS-CoV infection elicited by immunization with VLP expressing the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the S protein. Additionally, immune evasion of MERS-CoV RBD variants from anti-RBD sera was significantly controlled by anti-proteolytic cleavage sites and the fusion peptide sera. Conclusion anddiscussion:
Our study demonstrates the potential of VLP immunization targeting the proteolytic cleavage sites and the fusion peptide and RBD domains of the MERS-CoV S protein for the development of effective treatments and vaccines against MERS-CoV and related variants.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Coronavirus Infections
/
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
Topics:
Vaccines
/
Variants
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Front Immunol
Year:
2023
Document Type:
Article
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