Respiratory Research (Jan 2024)

Assessing the protection elicited by virus-like particles expressing the RSV pre-fusion F and tandem repeated G proteins against RSV rA2 line19F infection in mice

  • Min-Ju Kim,
  • Ki Back Chu,
  • Su-Hwa Lee,
  • Jie Mao,
  • Gi-Deok Eom,
  • Keon-Woong Yoon,
  • Eun-Kyung Moon,
  • Fu-Shi Quan

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12931-023-02641-w
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 25, no. 1
pp. 1 – 13

Abstract

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Abstract Excessive pulmonary inflammation is the hallmark of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection hindering efficacious RSV vaccine development. Yet, the vast majority of the experimental RSV vaccine studies use laboratory-adapted RSV strains that do not reflect the highly pathogenic and inflammatory nature of the virus found in clinical settings. Here, we re-evaluated the protective efficacy of the virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine co-expressing the pre-fusion (pre-F) protein and G protein with tandem repeats (Gt) reported in our previous study against the recombinant RSV rA2-line19F strain, which inflicts severe mucus production and inflammation in mice. VLP vaccine immunization elicited virus-specific serum antibody responses that mediated RSV rA2-line19F virus neutralization. VLP vaccine immunization promoted Th1 immune response development in the spleens and CD8 + T cell influx into the lungs of mice, which are essential for efficient viral clearance and dampened inflammatory response. When compared to the VLPs expressing only the pre-F antigen, those co-expressing both pre-F and Gt antigens conferred better protection in mice against rA2-line19F challenge infection. Overall, our data suggest that the pre-clinical VLP vaccine co-expressing RSV pre-F and Gt antigens can effectively protect mice against RSV strains that resemble pathogenic clinical isolates.

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