Junin virus Z protein-induced VLPs as an antigen presentation system

BORIO, CS; BILEN, MF; ARGUELLES, MH; GRACIELA GLIKMANN; LOZANO, ME

New Orleans

Congreso; 2013 Annual Meeting South Central Branch, American Society for Microbiology (ASM); 2013

Tulane University

Viral matrix proteins are involved in the formation of mature virions as budding particles during viral infection. Z protein of Junín virus, expressed without any other viral component in mammal cells is capable to induce budding of virus like particles (VLPs). In this study we propose to use this property to obtain VLPs carrying potential antigens fused to Z. To test this system, the immune response against eGFP was evaluated. For this, a mammalian expression vector comprising the Z protein gene fused to eGFP gene (ZeGFP) was constructed. This plasmid was transfected on 293T mammalian cells, and VLPs were purified from the supernatant. We show that VLPs have sequences from Z and eGFP proteins inside them, and evaluated the immune response induced against eGFP after inoculation of Balb/c mice with VLPs. A humoral immune response anti-eGFP was detected when the mice were inoculated with whole ZeGFP-carrying VLPs but not when were inoculated with triton X-100 disrupted ZeGFPcarrying VLPs or with eGFP alone, using similar protein amounts. These preliminary results indicate that VLP structure stimulates the immune response against eGFP. Future studies will require the optimization of the immunization protocol, and will test the use of Z fused to different viral antigens, including Measles virus Nucleoprotein and the group A rotavirus VP6 epitopes, as heterologous antigen models