Development of a robust, higher throughput green fluorescent protein (GFP)-based Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) micro-neutralization assay.

The goal of most prophylactic vaccines is to elicit robust and effective neutralizing antibodies against the human pathogen target. The titer of neutralizing antibodies to Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) is a useful biomarker for evaluating EBV vaccines. Here, the development and optimization of a 96-well micro-neutralization fluorescent imaging assay (FIA) using an EBV virus-encoding green fluorescent protein (GFP) to infect adherent EBV recipient cells is reported.

Production of Cytomegalovirus Dense Bodies by Scalable Bioprocess Methods Maintains Immunogenicity and Improves Neutralizing Antibody Titers.

Unlabelled: With the goal of developing a virus-like particle-based vaccine based on dense bodies (DB) produced by human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infections, we evaluated scalable culture, isolation, and inactivation methods and applied technically advanced assays to determine the relative purity, composition, and immunogenicity of DB particles. Our results increase our understanding of the benefits and disadvantages of methods to recover immunogenic DB and inactivate contaminating viral particles. Our results indicate that (i) HCMV strain Towne replicates in MRC-5 fibroblasts grown on microcarriers, (ii) DB particles recovered from 2-bromo-5,6-dichloro-1-beta-d-ribofuranosyl benzimidazole riboside (BDCRB)-treated cultures and purified by tangential flow filtration (TFF-DB) or glycerol tartrate gradient sedimentation (GT-DB) constitute 92% or 98%, respectively, of all particles in the final product, (iii) epithelial cell-tropic DB particles are recovered from a single round of coinfection by AD169 and Towne strain viruses, consistent with complementation between the UL130 and UL131A expressed by these strains and restoration of gH/gL/UL128-UL131A (gH pentamer), (iv) equivalent neutralizing antibody titers are induced in mice following immunization with epithelial cell-tropic DB or gH pentamer-deficient DB preparations, (v) UV-inactivated residual virus in GT-DB or TFF-DB preparations retained immunogenicity and induced neutralizing antibody, preventing viral entry into epithelial cells, and (vi) GT-DB and TFF-DB induced cellular immune responses to multiple HCMV peptides.

Separation of adeno-associated virus type 2 empty particles from genome containing vectors by anion-exchange column chromatography.

Adeno-associated virus (AAV) empty capsids typically co-purify with genome containing AAV2 vectors purified by column chromatography. This study describes a method to remove empty capsids from genome containing vector particles by anion exchange chromatography. The separation is based on the slightly less anionic character of empty particles compared to vectors.