Authors: Wei Bu, M. Gordon Joyce, Hanh Nguyen, Dalton V. Banh, Fiona Aguilar, Zeshan Tariq, Moh Lan Yap, Yusuke Tsujimura, Rebecca A. Gillespie, Yaroslav Tsybovsky, Sarah F. Andrews, Sandeep R. Narpala, Adrian B. McDermott, Michael G. Rossmann, Yasuhiro Yasutomi, Gary J. Nabel, Masaru Kanekiyo, Jeffrey I. Cohen
Summary: Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) causes infectious mononucleosis and is associated with epithelial-cellcancers and B cell lymphomas. An effective EBV vaccine is not available. We foundthat antibodies to the EBV glycoprotein gH/gL complex were the principal componentsin human plasma that neutralized infection of epithelial cells and that antibodiesto gH/gL and gp42 contributed to B cell neutralization. Immunization of mice and nonhumanprimates with nanoparticle vaccines that displayed components of the viral-fusionmachinery EBV gH/gL or gH/gL/gp42 elicited antibodies that potently neutralized bothepithelial-cell and B cell infection. Immune serum from nonhuman primates inhibitedEBV-glycoprotein-mediated fusion of epithelial cells and B cells and targeted an epitopecritical for virus-cell fusion. Therefore, unlike the leading EBV gp350 vaccine candidate,which only protects B cells from infection, these EBV nanoparticle vaccines elicitantibodies that inhibit the virus-fusion apparatus and provide cell-type-independentprotection from virus infection.
Source: Immunity, 2019