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Journal of Virology, December 2000, p. 11574-11580, Vol. 74, No. 24
Division of Infectious Diseases, Children's
Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
45229,1 and Department of
Microbiology and Immunology, Tulane University Medical Center, New
Orleans, Louisiana 701122
Received 8 May 2000/Accepted 25 September 2000
The purpose of this study was to determine which regions of the VP6
protein of the murine rotavirus strain EDIM are able to elicit
protection against rotavirus shedding in the adult mouse model
following intranasal (i.n.) immunization with fragments of VP6 and a
subsequent oral EDIM challenge. In the initial experiment, the first
(fragment AB), middle (BC), or last (CD) part of VP6 that was
genetically fused to maltose-binding protein (MBP) and expressed in
Escherichia coli was examined. Mice (BALB/c) immunized with
two 9-µg doses of each of the chimeras and 10 µg of the mucosal adjuvant LT(R192G) were found to be protected against EDIM shedding (80, 92, and nearly 100% reduction, respectively; P
0022-538X/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Functional Mapping of Protective Domains and
Epitopes in the Rotavirus VP6 Protein
0.01) following challenge. Because CD produced almost complete
protection, we prepared four E. coli-expressed, MBP-fused
chimeras containing overlapping fragments of the CD region (i.e., CD1,
CD2, CD3, and CD4) whose lengths ranged from 61 to 67 amino acid
residues. Following i.n. immunization, CD1, CD2, and CD4 induced
significant (P
0.004) protection (88, 84, and 92%
reduction, respectively). In addition, 11 peptides (18 to 30 residues)
of the CD region with between 0 and 13 overlapping amino acids were
synthesized. Two 50-µg doses of each peptide with LT(R192G) were
administered i.n. to BALB/c mice. Five peptides were found to elicit
significant (P
0.02) protection. Moreover, a
14-amino-acid region within peptide 6 containing a putative
CD4+ T-cell epitope was found to confer nearly complete
protection, suggesting a protective role for CD4+ T cells.
Mice that were protected by fragments BC and CD1 and four of the five
protective synthetic peptides did not develop measurable rotavirus
antibodies in serum or stool, implying that protection induced by these
domains was not dependent on antibody. Together, these observations
suggest that multiple regions of VP6 can stimulate protection, a region
of VP6 as small as 14 amino acids containing a CD4+ T-cell
epitope can stimulate nearly complete protection, and protection
mediated by a subset of epitopes in the VP6 protein does not require
antibodies in BALB/c mice.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Division of
Infectious Diseases, Children's Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet
Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45229-3039. Phone: (513) 636-7679. Fax: (513)
636-7655. E-mail: anthony.choi{at}chmcc.org.
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