Inhibition of Japanese Encephalitis Virus Infection by Flavivirus Recombinant E Protein Domain Ⅲ

摘要

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus closely related to the human pathogens including yellow fever virus,dengue virus and West Nile virus.There are currently no effective antiviral therapies for all of the flavivirus and only a few highly effective vaccines are licensed for human use.In this paper,the E protein domain Ⅲ (DⅢ) of six heterologous flaviviruses (DENV1-4,WNV and JEV) was expressed in Escherichia coli successfully.The proteins were purified after a solubilization and refolding procedure,characterized by SDS-PAGE and Western blotting.Competitive inhibition showed that all recombinant flavivirus DⅢ proteins blocked the entry of JEV into BHK-21 cells.Further studies indicated that antibodies induced by the soluble recombinant flavivirus DⅢ partially protected mice against lethal JEV challenge.These results demonstrated that recombinant flavivirus DⅢ proteins could inhibit JEV infection competitively,and immunization with proper folding flavivirus DⅢ induced cross-protection against JEV infection in mice,implying a possible role of DⅢ for the cross-protection among flavivirus as well as its use in antigens for immunization in animal models.