Immune responses in goats to recombinant hemagglutinin-neuraminidase glycoprotein of Peste des petits ruminants virus: identification of a T cell determinant

Peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV), a member of the genus Morbilliviru s within the family Paramyxoviridae, causes a fatal disease 'peste des peti ts ruminants' in goats and sheep. This enveloped virus is antigenically clo sely related to rinderpest virus (RPV), which causes a similar but distinct disease in large ruminants. PPRV harbors two major surface glycoproteins, the hemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN) and the fusion (F) proteins. The surfa ce glycoproteins of morbilliviruses are highly immunogenic and confer prote ctive immunity. In this study, we investigated the immune responses generat ed in goats immunized with low doses of purified recombinant extracellular baculovirus carrying a membrane bound form of the HN protein of PPRV withou t any adjuvant. We report that the immunized goats develop both humoral and cell-mediated immune responses. Antibodies generated in the immunized anim als could neutralize both PPRV and RPV in vitro. Further, using a combinati on of Escherichia coli expressed deletion mutants of PPRV-HN and RPV-H prot eins, and synthetic peptides corresponding to the highly conserved N-termin al sequences of MV-H protein, we have mapped an N-terminal T cell determina nt (amino acids 123-137) and a C-terminal domain (amino acids 242-609) harb oring potential T cell determinant(s) in goats. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science L td. All rights reserved.