Academic literature on the topic 'SA14-14-2 E'

The attenuated Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) live vaccine SA14-14-2 prepared from wild-type (WT) strain SA14 was licensed to prevent Japanese encephalitis (JE) in 1989 in China. Many studies showed that the premembrane (prM) and envelope (E) protein were the crucial determinant of virulence and immunogenicity of JEV. So we are interested in whether the substitution of prM/E of JEV WT SA14 with those of vaccine strain SA14-14-2 could decrease neurovirulence and prevent the challenge of JEV WT SA14. Molecular clone technique was used to replace the prM/E gene of JEV WT strain SA14 with those of vaccine strain SA14-14-2 to construct the infectious clone of chimeric virus (designated JEV SA14/SA14-14-2), the chimeric virus recovered from BHK21 cells upon electrotransfection of RNA into BHK21 cells. The results showed that the recovered chimeric virus was highly attenuated in mice, and a single immunization elicited strong protective immunity in a dose-dependent manner. This study increases our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of neurovirulence attenuation and immunogenicity of JEV.

Japanese encephalitis (JE) remains the leading cause of viral encephalitis in the Asia-Pacific region, and the live vaccine SA14-14-2 is currently recommended by WHO and widely used in Asian countries with a good safety and efficacy profile. In this study, we demonstrated that SA14-14-2 failed to produce NS1’, the larger NS1-related protein, compared with its parental strain SA14 in various cells. Sequence analysis and secondary structure prediction identified a single silent mutation G66A in the NS2A-coding region of SA14-14-2 destabilized the conserved pseudoknot structure, which was associated with a −1 ribosomal frame shift event. Using reverse genetic technology and animal study, we provided solid evidence that this single silent mutation G66A in the NS2A gene abolished the production of NS1’ in vitro and reduced neurovirulence and neuroinvasiveness in mice. These findings provide critical information in understanding the molecular mechanism of JE vaccine attenuation and is critical for JE vaccine quality control.

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is the major cause of viral encephalitis in South East Asia. It has been suggested that, as a consequence of the inflammatory process during JEV infection, there is disruption of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) tight junctions that in turn allows the virus access to the central nervous system (CNS). However, what happens at early times of JEV contact with the BBB is poorly understood. In the present work, we evaluated the ability of both a virulent and a vaccine strain of JEV (JEV RP9 and SA14-14-2, respectively) to cross an in vitro human BBB model. Using this system, we demonstrated that both JEV RP9 and SA14-14-2 are able to cross the BBB without disrupting it at early times post viral addition. Furthermore, we find that almost 10 times more RP9 infectious particles than SA14-14 cross the model BBB, indicating this BBB model discriminates between the virulent RP9 and the vaccine SA14-14-2 strains of JEV. Beyond contributing to the understanding of early events in JEV neuroinvasion, we demonstrate this in vitro BBB model can be used as a system to study the viral determinants of JEV neuroinvasiveness and the molecular mechanisms by which this flavivirus crosses the BBB during early times of neuroinvasion.

ABSTRACTThe safety and efficacy of the live-attenuated Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) SA14-14-2 vaccine are attributed to mutations that accumulated in the viral genome during its derivation. However, little is known about the contribution that is made by most of these mutations to virulence attenuation and vaccine immunogenicity. Here, we generated recombinant JEV (rJEV) strains containing JEV SA14-14-2 vaccine-specific mutations that are located in the untranslated regions (UTRs) and seven protein genes or are introduced from PCR-amplified regions of the JEV SA14-14-2 genome. The resulting mutant viruses were evaluated in tissue culture and in mice. The authentic JEV SA14-14-2 (E) protein, with amino acid substitutions L107F, E138K, I176V, T177A, E244G, Q264H, K279M, A315V, S366A, and K439R relative to the wild-type rJEV clone, was essential and sufficient for complete attenuation of neurovirulence. Individually, the nucleotide substitution T39A in the 5′ UTR (5′-UTR-T39A), the capsid (C) protein amino acid substitution L66S (C-L66S), and the complete NS1/2A genome region containing 10 mutations each significantly reduced virus neuroinvasion but not neurovirulence. The levels of peripheral virulence attenuation imposed by the 5′-UTR-T39A and C-L66S mutations, individually, were somewhat mitigated in combination with other vaccine strain-specific mutations, which might be compensatory, and together did not affect immunogenicity. However, a marked reduction in immunogenicity was observed with the addition of the NS1/2A and NS5 vaccine virus genome regions. These results suggest that a second-generation recombinant vaccine can be rationally engineered to maximize levels of immunogenicity without compromising safety.IMPORTANCEThe live-attenuated JEV SA14-14-2 vaccine has been vital for controlling the incidence of disease caused by JEV, particularly in rural areas of Asia where it is endemic. The vaccine was developed >25 years ago by passaging wild-type JEV strain SA14 in tissue cultures and rodents, with intermittent tissue culture plaque purifications, to produce a virus clone that had adequate levels of attenuation and immunogenicity. The vaccine and parent virus sequences were later compared, and mutations were identified throughout the vaccine virus genome, but their contributions to attenuation were never fully elucidated. Here, using reverse genetics, we comprehensively defined the impact of JEV SA14-14-2 mutations on attenuation of virulence and immunogenicity in mice. These results are relevant for quality control of new lots of the current live-attenuated vaccine and provide insight for the rational design of second-generation, live-attenuated, recombinant JEV vaccine candidates.

West Nile virus disease (WND) is an arthropod-borne zoonosis responsible for nonspecific fever or severe encephalitis. The pathogen is West Nile virus belonging to the genus Flavivirus, family Flaviviridae. Every year, thousands of cases were reported, which poses significant public health risk. Here, we constructed a West Nile virus chimera, ChiVax-WN01, by replacing the prMΔE gene of JEV SA14-14-2 with that of the West Nile virus NY99. The ChiVax-WN01 chimera showed clear, different characters compared with that of JEV SA14-14-2 and WNV NY99 strain. An animal study indicated that the ChiVax-WN01 chimera presented moderate safety and immunogenicity for 4-week female BALB/c mice.

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a zoonotic mosquito-borne pathogen that regularly causes severe neurological disease in humans in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific region. Pigs are one of the main amplifying hosts of JEV and play a central role in the virus transmission cycle. The objective of this study was to identify in vitro cell systems to investigate early effects of JEV infection including viral replication and host cell death. Here, we demonstrate the susceptibility of several porcine cell lines to the attenuated genotype III JEV strain SA14-14-2. Monolayers of porcine nasal turbinate (PT-K75), kidney (SK-RST), testis (ST), and monocyte-derived macrophage (CΔ2+) cells were infected with SA14-14-2 for up to five days at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 0.1. The hamster kidney cell line BHK-21, previously shown to be susceptible to SA14-14-2, was used as a positive control. Culture supernatants and cells were collected between 0 and 120 h post infection (hpi), and monolayers were observed for cytopathic effect (CPE) using brightfield microscopy. The number of infectious virus particles was quantified by plaque assay and cell viability was determined using trypan blue staining. An indirect immunofluorescence assay was used to detect the presence of JEV NS1 antigens in cells infected at 1 MOI. All four porcine cell lines demonstrated susceptibility to SA14-14-2 and produced infectious virus by 12 hpi. Virus titers peaked at 48 hpi in CΔ2+, BHK-21, and SK-RST cells, at 72 hpi in PT-K75, and at 120 hpi in ST cells. CPE was visible in infected CΔ2+ and BHK-21 cells, but not the other three cell lines. The proportion of viable cells, as measured by trypan blue exclusion, declined after 24 hpi in BHK-21 and 48 hpi in CΔ2+ cells, but did not substantially decline in SK-RST, PT-K75 or ST cells. At 48 hpi, JEV NS1 was detected in all infected cell lines by fluorescence microscopy. These findings demonstrate several porcine cell lines which have the potential to serve as useful research tools for investigating JEV infection dynamics and host cell mechanisms in a natural amplifying host species, such as pigs, in vitro.

ABSTRACT A yellow fever virus (YFV)/Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) chimera in which the structural proteins prM and E of YFV 17D are replaced with those of the JEV SA14-14-2 vaccine strain is under evaluation as a candidate vaccine against Japanese encephalitis. The chimera (YFV/JEV SA14-14-2, or ChimeriVax-JE) is less neurovirulent than is YFV 17D vaccine in mouse and nonhuman primate models (F. Guirakhoo et al., Virology 257:363–372, 1999; T. P. Monath et al., Vaccine 17:1869–1882, 1999). Attenuation depends on the presence of the JEV SA14-14-2 E protein, as shown by the high neurovirulence of an analogous YFV/JEV Nakayama chimera derived from the wild JEV Nakayama strain (T. J. Chambers, A. Nestorowicz, P. W. Mason, and C. M. Rice, J. Virol. 73:3095–3101, 1999). Ten amino acid differences exist between the E proteins of ChimeriVax-JE and the YFV/JEV Nakayama virus, four of which are predicted to be neurovirulence determinants based on various sequence comparisons. To identify residues that are involved in attenuation, a series of intratypic YFV/JEV chimeras containing either single or multiple amino acid substitutions were engineered and tested for mouse neurovirulence. Reversions in at least three distinct clusters were required to restore the neurovirulence typical of the YFV/JEV Nakayama virus. Different combinations of cluster-specific reversions could confer neurovirulence; however, residue 138 of the E protein (E138) exhibited a dominant effect. No single amino acid reversion produced a phenotype significantly different from that of the ChimeriVax-JE parent. Together with the known genetic stability of the virus during prolonged cell culture and mouse brain passage, these findings support the candidacy of this experimental vaccine as a novel live-attenuated viral vaccine against Japanese encephalitis.

Japanese encephalitis virus is a member of Flaviviridae family. Flaviviridae family has four genera which comprises of Flavivirus, Pestivirus, Hepacivirus and Pegivirus. The global burden of disease caused by these viruses is very significant. Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a major cause of encephalitis in children below five years of age in south-east Asian countries. JEV is transmitted to humans primarily by Culex mosquitoes. JEV genome is ~11kb in size. A single polyprotein is encoded from a positive sense RNA which is co- and post-translationally cleaved by viral and cellular proteases to give rise to three structural and seven non-structural proteins. Live attenuated vaccine SA14-14-2 derived from its wild-type parent strain SA14 is a very effective vaccine and extremely safe for use in humans. Earlier reports have attributed attenuation of SA14-14-2 to the absence of NS1’ protein, whose synthesis is abrogated in SA14-14-2 by a single silent mutation (G to A) in stem1 of a pseudoknot structure at the 5’ end of the NS2a gene. Sequence comparisons of SA14 and SA14-14-2 have revealed that envelope protein has nine and NS1 has four aminoacid changes in the protein sequence with an additional amino acid changes distributed among the remaining proteins. It has been shown that the mutant envelope of SA14-14-2 is sufficient to attenuate the neurovirulence and neuroinvasion displayed by the wild type virus. In this study we therefore investigated the contribution of both the viral glycoproteins, NS1’ and envelope to the attenuated phenotype, for which we found ER stress to be a surrogate marker. As glycoproteins need the ER environment for their proper folding and glycosylation, we first compared the levels of ER stress in infected cells. We found elevated levels of ER stress in SA14-14-2-infected cells as compared to P20778 virus. We studied the PERK pathway in greater detail and found that the WT P20778 virus is able to dephosphorylate e- IF2α very efficiently as compared to the vaccine strain SA14-14-2. We also observed a significant increase in the chaperone levels in cells infected with the vaccine strain SA14-14-2 as compared to the WT virus. As expected, the persistent phosphorylation of eIF2α led to increased autophagic flux in SA14-14-2-infected cells. To study the contribution of NS1’ protein to the above ER stress, lentivirus expressing NS1’ was generated and used to transduce porcine kidney cell line. While we did not observe significant difference in the PERK pathway or autophagy, we did observe the constitutive expression of CHOP in NS1’ lentivirus transduced cells. CHOP mediates the dephosphorylation of p-eIF2α by GADD34 directed p110 phosphatase in a negative feedback loop. We also observed that dephosphorylation of e-IF2α in WT JEV-infected cells expressing NS1’ is independent of PERK and this dephosphorylation may be achieved by the efficient recruitment of CHOP. Hence, the role of NS1’ in WT JEV-infected cells is to relieve the cell from ER stress mediated by the phosphorylation of eIF2α as an antiviral response. Our results from the studies of envelope protein (E) of the WT and the vaccine strain using a panel of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) suggested that it is assembled very differently on the vaccine virus particle relative to WT virus. Comparison of the half-lives of the metabolically labelled E protein from the infected cell lysates revealed that the SA14-14-2 E is degraded much rapidly compared to the WT with half-lives of 5.9h and 1.2h, respectively. Extensive investigations using DTT to reduce the disulphide groups and alkylation of –SH groups using N-ethyl maleimide (NEM) revealed that the intracellular SA14-14-2 E protein folded extremely slowly. These findings led us to conclude that the folding kinetics and assembly of the E protein from the two viruses are very different. We concluded that this non-native folded state of SA14-14-2 E is the prime cause of increased ER stress in infected cells, leading to autophagy and thereby viral attenuation.