Intramuscular inoculation of Sin Nombre hantavirus cDNAs induces cellular and humoral immune responses in BALB c mice

To examine whether genetic immunization with Sin Nombre: (SN) hantavirus ge nes could elicit immune responses, nine fragments spanning the envelope gly coprotein genes G1 and G2, and the complete N gene were cloned into a CMV e xpression vector. To ensure representation of all potential epitopes, adjac ent fragments of the glycoprotein genes overlapped one another by 100 nucle otides. Vectors containing the gene fragments were inoculated intramuscular ly into BALB/c mice and splenocyte proliferation and western blot-detectabl e antibodies and neutralization titers were determined. The N gene and seve n of the nine M segment-derived cDNAs tested produced significant specific lymphoproliferative responses, and many of the constructs elicited either n eutralizing or western blot-delectable antibodies. These promising results encourage the development of infection models for SN virus that will be cap able of detecting protective responses. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.