JUNÍN Z PROTEIN OF VIRUS-LIKE-PARTICLES (Z-VLPS) INDUCES MATURATION OF MICE DENDRITIC CELLS.

ALEJANDRA DUARTE; DANIELA MONTAGNA; SANDRA GOÑI; AGUSTÍN DE GANZÓ; CRISTINA SILVIA BORIO; MERCEDES PASTORINI; JULIETA ALCAIN; MERCEDES ALEMAN

Buenos Aires

Congreso; Reunión conjunta de sociedades de biociencias; 2017

SAI

Arenavirus matrix Junín Z protein is important in virus budding andis able to generate enveloped virus-like-particles (VLPs) in absenceof any other viral proteins. These genome-free Z-VLPs are oftenmorphologically similar to the live virus from which they are derivedwithout genome. Its describe that different VLPs are capable of activatingcells involved in both innate and adaptive immunity, ultimatelygenerating both humoral and cell-mediated immunity. Mature dendriticcells (DCs) are antigen-presenting cells that transports antigento the peripheral lymph nodes to initiate CD4 and CD8 T cell responses.VLPs appear to be good tools to deliver different antigens.We hypothesized that these Z-VLP should be a good immunogenand would be useful for vaccine purposes. Because DCs representa critical link between innate and adaptive immune responses andplay a crucial role in vaccine immunogenicity, we tested the effectof Z-VLPs on DCs maturation. In this work we evaluate the immunogenicityof Junín Z protein to produce VLPs carrying the greenfluorescent protein (Z-VLP), as a model antigen. We generated DCsfrom murine bone marrow cells and exposed them to Z-VLP or LPSfor 24 h. Z-VLP-exposed DCs showed (by flow cytometer) an increaseof maturation markers similar to responses induced by LPS.Cell-surface expression of CD86 (p