FLUORESCENCE SPECTROSCOPY MONITORING OF THE CONFORMATIONAL RESTRAINT OF FORMALDEHYDE-TREATED AND GLUTARALDEHYDE-TREATED INFECTIOUS BURSAL DISEASE VIRUS PROTEINS

Interaction of native proteinaceous antigens during the recognition an d the effector phases of an immune response lends to antigenic conform ational modifications which may elicit additional specific immune resp onse. Protein cross-linking and conformation restraining formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde have been extensively used in vaccine preparation, but the relative efficiencies of conformational restraint at concentra tions similar to those used in vaccine preparation have no been invest igated. We addressed this issue by comparing the extent of conformatio nal restraint of virus proteins in formaldehyde- and glutaraldehyde-tr eated virus preparations by monitoring the fluorescence intensities (I -320) Of infectious bursal disease virus preparations (IBDV) and those of untreated virus during thermal denaturation. Formaldehyde was foun d to cause no detectable conformational restraint at 0.01% and only ve ry weak restraint at 1%, while glutaraldehyde caused very strong confo rmational restraint at 0.01%. If is proposed how conformational restra int of proteinaceous antigens may alter ensuing immunity (C) 1998 Else vier Science Ltd All rights reserved.