Immunogenicity and Protective Effect of a DNA Construct Encoding Certain Neutralizing Epitopes of Herpes Simplex Virus Type-1 Glycoprotein B

Bamdad, Taravat; Roostaee, M. H.; Sadeghizadeh, M.; Mahboudi, F.; Kazemnejad, A.; Soleimanjahi, H.

doi:10.14712/fb2005051040109

Fol. Biol. 2005, 51, 109-113

https://doi.org/10.14712/fb2005051040109

Immunogenicity and Protective Effect of a DNA Construct Encoding Certain Neutralizing Epitopes of Herpes Simplex Virus Type-1 Glycoprotein B

Taravat Bamdad¹, M. H. Roostaee¹, M. Sadeghizadeh², F. Mahboudi³, A. Kazemnejad⁴, H. Soleimanjahi¹

¹Department of Virology, School of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran, Iran
²Department of Genetics, School of Basic Sciences, Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran, Iran
³Department of Biotechnology, Pasteur Institute, Tehran, Iran
⁴Department of Biostatistics, School of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran, Iran

Received April 2005
Accepted June 2005

Much attention is presently focused on the vaccination with certain epitopes of an antigen. To further study the ability of neutralizing epitopes mapped in the first 1515 nucleotides of glycoprotein B of herpes simplex virus type-1 (gB-1) to induce neutralizing antibodies, a DNA immunization approach was employed. Vaccination of mice with a plasmid expressing the neutralizing epitopes induced humoral immune responses, although the antibody titre was significantly lower than that of antibodies induced by the full-length gB-1 gene. Furthermore, the plasmid DNA could not protect the mice against HSV-1 lethal challenge, but could significantly prolong the survival time compared to mock-vaccinated group.