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 interact ...
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.
Organizational Affiliation:
Pirbright Institute, Pirbright, UK.,Diamond Light Source, Didcot, UK.,Merck Sharp &Dohme Animal Health, Cologne, Germany.,Transboundary Animal Disease Programme, Agricultural Research Council-Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, Onderstepoort, South Africa.,Division of Structural Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.,Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.,Animal and Microbial Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK.
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