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Title: EXAMINATION OF THE UTILITY OF PLANT VIRUS CAPSID PROTEIN FUSIONS TO PRODUCE NEWCASTLE DISEASE VIRUS VACCINE ANTIGENS

Author
item Nemchinov, Lev
item Zhao, Yan
item Hammond, Rosemarie

Submitted to: Meeting Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/1/2004
Publication Date: 3/21/2004
Citation: Nemchinov, L.G., Zhao, Y., Hammond, R. 2004. Examination of the utility of plant virus capsid protein fusions to produce newcastle disease virus vaccine antigens. Meeting Proceedings. p.64.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV), a member of family Paramyxoviridae, genus Avulavirus, infects many species of both domestic and wild birds, with the mortality and morbidity rates varying among species and strain of virus. NDV virions are enveloped and contain a single molecule of linear, negative sense RNA. The lipid envelope contains two transmembrane glycoproteins, which form spike-like structures on the surface of the particle: the fusion protein (F), and the hemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN) protein. Epitopes present in F and HN proteins are known to elicit neutralizing antibodies to NDV. The most widely used vaccines against NDV are live viruses that can themselves cause mild disease. Our goal was to develop an alternative anti-NDV vaccine candidate: subunit-based, cost-effective and conveniently produced in a plant system. To achieve this, we have chosen transient expression technologies where high-level production of desired foreign proteins in the host plant results from the rapidly amplified genome of an infectious plant virus. A presentation system based on the coat protein (CP) of Cucumber Mosaic Virus as a display carrier was designed to express a 17 aa-long neutralizing epitope of NDV's F protein in plants and an 8 aa-long neutralizing epitope of the NDV HN protein in various positions of the CP. Recombinant CMV CP was either placed under transcriptional control of the duplicated subgenomic promoter of Potato Virus X in the p2C2S vector or in infectious cDNA constructs of the Ixora strain of CMV. In vitro RNA transcripts were generated and used to inoculate different plant species susceptible to PVX and CMV. In most cases the modified virus was infectious and NDV epitopes expressed on the surface of the CMV CP were recognized by anti-NDV sera. In some cases, insertions were either partially or wholly deleted. These findings have implications for the utility of CMV-based chimeras as antigen presentation systems as well as for the study of mechanisms controlling RNA recombination and genome stability in CMV.