Effect of Junín Z protein of virus-like-particles (Z-VLPs) on dendritic cells maturation

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

Aachen

Simposio; 15th Internationes Symposium on Dendritic cells; 2018

Arenavirus matrix protein Z plays an important role in virus budding and is able to generate enveloped virus-like-particles (VLPs) in absence of any other viral proteins. These genome-free Z-VLPs are often morphologically similar to the live virus from which they are derived and are highly immunogenic. VLPs are capable of activating cells involved in both innate and adaptive immunity, ultimately generating both humoral and cell-mediated immunity. Interestingly, targeting immature dendritic cells (DCs) with VLPs induced maturation and stimulation of these cells. Mature DCs are a key antigen-presenting cell population that transports antigen to the peripheral lymph nodes to initiate CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses. VLPs appear to be useful to deliver antigens to vaccinate against viral infections dissecting viral immunobiology. We hypothesized that this Z-VLP could be a good immunogen and excellent tools for vaccine purposes. In this work we tested the capability of Z-VLPs to induce maturation and function of DCs, because DCs represent a critical link between innate and adaptive immune responses and play a crucial role in vaccine immunogenicity. Punctually we evaluate the immunogenicity of Junín Z protein to produce VLPs carrying the green fluorescent protein (eGFP), as a model antigen. We generated DCs from murine bone marrow cells and exposed them to this molecule, LPS, or GFP for 24 h. Z-VLP-exposed DCs showed signs of maturation similar to responses induced by LPS. Cell-surface expression of CD86 (p