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Designed, highly expressing, thermostable dengue virus 2 envelope protein dimers elicit quaternary epitope antibodies
Science Advances
  • Stephen T. Kudlacek, University of North Carolina
  • Stefan Metz, University of North Carolina
  • Devina Thiono, University of North Carolina
  • Alexander M. Payne, University of North Carolina
  • Thanh T.N. Phan, University of North Carolina
  • Shaomin Tian, University of North Carolina
  • Lawrence J. Forsberg, University of North Carolina
  • Jack McGuire, University of North Carolina
  • Ian Selm, University of North Carolina
  • Shu Zhang, University of North Carolina
  • Ashutosh Tripathy, University of North Carolina
  • Joseph S. Harrison, University of the Pacific
  • Nathan I. Niceley, University of North Carolina
  • Sandrine Soman, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research
  • Michael K. McCracken, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research
  • Gregory D. Gromowski, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research
  • Richard G. Jarman, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research
  • Lakshmanane Premkumar, University of North Carolina
  • Aravinda M. de Silva, University of North Carolina
  • Brian Kuhlman, University of North Carolina
ORCID
Joseph Harrison: 0000-0002-2118-6524
Document Type
Article
Department
Chemistry
DOI
10.1126/sciadv.abg4084
Publication Date
10-15-2021
Disciplines
Abstract

Dengue virus (DENV) is a worldwide health burden, and a safe vaccine is needed. Neutralizing antibodies bind to quaternary epitopes on DENV envelope (E) protein homodimers. However, recombinantly expressed soluble E proteins are monomers under vaccination conditions and do not present these quaternary epitopes, partly explaining their limited success as vaccine antigens. Using molecular modeling, we found DENV2 E protein mutations that induce dimerization at low concentrations (<100 pM) and enhance production yield by more than 50-fold. Cross-dimer epitope antibodies bind to the stabilized dimers, and a crystal structure resembles the wild-type (WT) E protein bound to a dimer epitope antibody. Mice immunized with the stabilized dimers developed antibodies that bind to E dimers and not monomers and elicited higher levels of DENV2-neutralizing antibodies compared to mice immunized with WT E antigen. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of using structure-based design to produce subunit vaccines for dengue and other flaviviruses.

Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Citation Information
Stephen T. Kudlacek, Stefan Metz, Devina Thiono, Alexander M. Payne, et al.. "Designed, highly expressing, thermostable dengue virus 2 envelope protein dimers elicit quaternary epitope antibodies" Science Advances Vol. 42 Iss. 7 (2021) p. 1 - 18 ISSN: 2375-2548
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/joseph-harrison/40/