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Publication Abstract from PubMed

The Lassa virus is endemic in parts of West Africa, and it causes hemorrhagic fever with high mortality. The development of a recombinant protein vaccine has been hampered by the instability of soluble Lassa virus glycoprotein complex (GPC) trimers, which disassemble into monomeric subunits after expression. Here, we use two-component protein nanoparticles consisting of trimeric and pentameric subunits to stabilize GPC in a trimeric conformation. These GPC nanoparticles present twenty prefusion GPC trimers on the surface of an icosahedral particle. Cryo-EM studies of GPC nanoparticles demonstrated a well-ordered structure and yielded a high-resolution structure of an unliganded GPC. These nanoparticles induced potent humoral immune responses in rabbits and protective immunity against the lethal Lassa virus challenge in guinea pigs. Additionally, we isolated a neutralizing antibody that mapped to the putative receptor-binding site, revealing a previously undefined site of vulnerability. Collectively, these findings offer potential approaches to vaccine and therapeutic design for the Lassa virus.

Lassa virus glycoprotein nanoparticles elicit neutralizing antibody responses and protection.,Brouwer PJM, Antanasijevic A, Ronk AJ, Muller-Krauter H, Watanabe Y, Claireaux M, Perrett HR, Bijl TPL, Grobben M, Umotoy JC, Schriek AI, Burger JA, Tejjani K, Lloyd NM, Steijaert TH, van Haaren MM, Sliepen K, de Taeye SW, van Gils MJ, Crispin M, Strecker T, Bukreyev A, Ward AB, Sanders RW Cell Host Microbe. 2022 Nov 17:S1931-3128(22)00531-5. doi: , 10.1016/j.chom.2022.10.018. PMID:36400021^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.