49th Annual International Herpesvirus Workshop: HCMV Pre-fusion like gB shows strong immunogenicity and virus neutralization
49th Annual International Herpesvirus Workshop: HCMV Pre-fusion like gB shows strong immunogenicity and virus neutralization
Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a common virus infecting people of all ages, often causing mild or no symptoms in healthy individuals. However, infections can be serious for newborns and people with weakened immune systems, such as those undergoing organ transplantation. Glycoprotein B (gB) is a critical fusion protein, undergoing significant conformational changes during infection, transitioning from a metastable pre-fusion state to a stable post-fusion state to facilitate the fusion of the viral envelope with the host cell membrane. Because of this, gB has been intensively studied as a vaccine target, but traditional post-fusion gB vaccines elicit insufficient immunity due to its inherent conformational instability. This study lays the groundwork for developing pre-fusion stabilized HCMV vaccines with improved immunogenicity.
