A research group in Germany has created an innovative system for presenting epitopes in mammalian cells, aimed at conducting immune research. This approach is expected to greatly aid scientists in their immune research efforts. Their research was recently published in the journal Biology Methods and Protocols.
Promoting blood cells to produce antibodies against specific viral proteins is an important step in developing a human vaccine. This is challenging for researchers because whether subjects develop antibodies depends on how scientists design and administer the antigen, which is part of the virus they administer to test the vaccine's effectiveness.
A very important aspect of virus research is how to express and purify antigens for vaccination. Animals are immunized with prepared antigens, and the animals will produce specific antibodies against the antigens. But scientists must isolate the antigens to ensure that the vaccines they develop target the specific diseases they hope to prevent. Once researchers purify the antigen, they can create a vaccine that directs subjects to produce the desired antibodies. But such isolation work is particularly time-consuming when trying to develop lab-produced antigens, because viruses often mutate rapidly. It can take weeks for scientists to develop the correct antigen.
Scientists have developed a new method of inducing target-specific immune responses. By fusing the antigenic protein to an anchoring membrane-binding protein derived from tetraubiquitin, the researchers created a fusion protein that is primarily displayed on the surface of human cells. Carrier proteins expose proteins to the cell surface, inducing the production of antibodies against appropriate, relevant antigens. An additional advantage is that these antigens have the same conformation and modifications as the corresponding proteins in the virus because they are made by cells similar to the human cells that the virus naturally infects.
This new display technology has the potential to become a more reliable immune technology. In this study, researchers were able to induce antibodies against different proteins, focusing on the receptor-binding domain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The developed ankyrin allows scientists to immunize against specific diseases without the need to purify the antigen. Researchers are convinced that this technology can significantly speed up the immune process.
Daniel Ivanusic, one of the authors of the paper, said: "This work, based on the receptor-binding domain of SARS-CoV-2, is just the beginning of a very interesting immunological technology. For us, the most challenging, important and exciting application of using tANCHOR technology is the induction of neutralizing antibodies against HIV-1. I think this will be a great job!"
Compiled from /scitechdaily