期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2004
卷号：101
期号：25
页码：9405-9410
DOI：10.1073/pnas.0403060101
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Rabies virus (RV) nucleoprotein (N) tightly encapsidates the genomic and antigenomic RNA of RV to form the viral ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex. Antigens, such as N, presented in a highly organized structure are sufficient and even desirable to activate B cells to proliferate and produce antibodies. In addition to activating B cells to proliferate, it has been shown that RV N in the RNP complex induces potent T helper cell responses resulting in long-lasting and strong humoral immune responses against RV. The possibility to systematically incorporate foreign genes into the genome of RV and produce a recombinant virus allows us to examine whether the immunogenicity of foreign antigens can be enhanced by incorporation into the RV RNP structure. To test this hypothesis we constructed a recombinant RV expressing a RV N-GFP fusion protein. The chimeric N-GFP fusion protein was efficiently expressed and incorporated into RV RNP and virions. Moreover, the recombinant RNP induces a strong humoral immune response against GFP in mice. In contrast, mice inoculated with GFP alone or a combination of wild-type RV RNPs and GFP did not trigger any GFP-specific humoral responses using the same immunization schedule. These data indicate the usefulness of RV-based vectors as killed vaccines against other infectious diseases.
