Structure-based energetics of protein interfaces guides foot-and-mouth disease virus vaccine design

Kotecha, A., Seago, J., Scott, K., Burman, A., Loureiro, S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-8886-6893, Ren, J., Porta, C., Ginn, H. M., Jackson, T., Perez-Martin, E., Siebert, C. A., Paul, G., Huiskonen, J. T., Jones, I. M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7738-2516, Esnouf, R. M., Fry, E. E., Maree, F. F., Charleston, B. and Stuart, D. I. (2015) Structure-based energetics of protein interfaces guides foot-and-mouth disease virus vaccine design. Nature structural & molecular biology, 22 (10). pp. 788-794. ISSN 1545-9985 doi: 10.1038/nsmb.3096

Abstract/Summary

Virus capsids are primed for disassembly, yet capsid integrity is key to generating a protective immune response. Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) capsids comprise identical pentameric protein subunits held together by tenuous noncovalent interactions and are often unstable. Chemically inactivated or recombinant empty capsids, which could form the basis of future vaccines, are even less stable than live virus. Here we devised a computational method to assess the relative stability of protein-protein interfaces and used it to design improved candidate vaccines for two poorly stable, but globally important, serotypes of FMDV: O and SAT2. We used a restrained molecular dynamics strategy to rank mutations predicted to strengthen the pentamer interfaces and applied the results to produce stabilized capsids. Structural analyses and stability assays confirmed the predictions, and vaccinated animals generated improved neutralizing-antibody responses to stabilized particles compared to parental viruses and wild-type capsids.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/43233
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Biological Sciences > Biomedical Sciences Interdisciplinary centres and themes > Chemical Analysis Facility (CAF) > Electron Microscopy Laboratory (CAF)
Publisher	Nature Publishing Group
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