Disease Virus-Infected Rats Neutralizing Antibodies in Borna
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DOWNLOADED FROM Neutralizing antibodies in Borna disease virus-infected rats CG Hatalski, S Kliche, L Stitz, et al. 1995. Neutralizing antibodies in Borna disease jvi.ASM.ORG - virus-infected rats. J. Virol. 69(2):741-747. Updated information and services can be found at: http://jvi.asm.org at COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY July 22, 2010 These include: CONTENT ALERTS Receive: RSS Feeds, eTOCs, free email alerts (when new articles cite this article), more>> Information about commercial reprint orders: http://journals.asm.org/misc/reprints.dtl To subscribe to an ASM journal go to: http://journals.asm.org/subscriptions/ DOWNLOADED FROM JOURNAL OF VIROLOGY, Feb. 1995, p. 741–747 Vol. 69, No. 2 0022-538X/95/$04.0010 Copyright q 1995, American Society for Microbiology Neutralizing Antibodies in Borna Disease Virus-Infected Rats 1,2 1 3 1 CAROLYN G. HATALSKI, STEFANIE KLICHE, LOTHAR STITZ, AND W. IAN LIPKIN * Laboratory for Neurovirology, Department of Neurology,1 and Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology,2 University of California, Irvine, California 92717, and Institut fu¨r Virologie, jvi.ASM.ORG - Justus-Liebig-Universita¨t, D-35392 Giessen, Germany3 Received 8 August 1994/Accepted 2 November 1994 Borna disease is a neurologic syndrome caused by infection with a nonsegmented, negative-strand RNA virus, Borna disease virus. Infected animals have antibodies to two soluble viral proteins, p40 and p23, and a at COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY July 22, 2010 membrane-associated viral glycoprotein, gp18. We examined the time course for the development of neutral- ization activity and the expression of antibodies to individual viral proteins in sera of infected rats. The appearance of neutralizing activity correlated with the development of immunoreactivity to gp18, but not p40 or p23. Monospecific and monoclonal antibodies to native gp18 and recombinant nonglycosylated gp18 were also found to have neutralizing activity and to immunoprecipitate viral particles or subparticles. These findings suggest that gp18 is likely to be present on the surface of the viral particles and is likely to contain epitopes important for virus neutralization. Borna disease virus (BDV) is a nonsegmented, negative- Virus titration and neutralization assay. Viral infectivity in 20% brain homo- strand RNA virus (5, 7, 11, 13) that causes an immune-medi- genates was determined by the method of Pauli et al. (44). Virus neutralization was performed with a modification of the method of Danner et al. (12). Briefly, ated neurologic illness (53) in a wide variety of naturally in- 50 FFU of BDV was incubated with serial dilutions of antibodies or sera for 1 h fected animal hosts, including birds, cats, sheep, and horses at 378C, added to rabbit fetal glial cells, and incubated for 5 days. Serum was heat (19, 34, 36–38, 42, 63). Experimental infection in rats (40) inactivated at 568C for 30 min. In selected assays, mouse complement (1:50) results in a multiphasic syndrome characterized by hyperactiv- (Sigma, St. Louis, Mo.) was added to the virus concurrent with the addition of ity, stereotyped behaviors, dyskinesias, and dystonias (52). MAbs to determine the effects of complement on neutralization activity. The The viral antigenome contains five open reading frames in dilution of serum or antibody required to reduce the number of FFU by 50% was defined as the neutralization titer (NT50). As controls for each neutralization the following 59-to-39 order: p40, p23, gp18, p57, and pol (7, assay, rabbit fetal cells were exposed to medium without virus, treated with virus 11). mRNAs (25, 30, 39, 46, 56, 58, 61) and proteins (3, 18, 31, in medium alone (no antibodies), or treated with virus incubated with sera from 49, 57) corresponding to three of these open reading frames, normal rats. Pilot studies showed that approximately 8% of normal rat sera p40, p23, and gp18, have been found in infected cells and interfered with BDV infectivity at dilutions up to 1:16. Therefore, sera were considered to be neutralizing only if the NT50 exceeded 1:32. Supernatant from tissues in a 59-to-39 expression gradient (p40 . p23 . gp18) (7, nonproducing myeloma cell lines, as well as MAbs directed against BDV-p23 11, 17, 26, 47). Antibodies to p40 and p23 (soluble antigens) (24/36F1) and BDV-p40 (38/17C1) (57), were found to neutralize infectivity at are readily detected in both sera and cerebrospinal fluid of dilutions of 1:2. Thus, MAbs were considered to be neutralizing only if the NT50 naturally and experimentally infected animals (31, 33, 35). An- exceeded 1:4. tibodies to gp18, a membrane-associated glycoprotein (previ- Preparation of proteins (recp40, recp23, recp18, and gp18). Plasmids encoding p40 (pBDV-40 [39]), p23 (pBDV-23 [56]), and gp18 (pBDV-gp18 [25]) were ously described as 14.5 kDa), have been reported less fre- subcloned (6) into the prokaryotic expression vector pet15b (Novagen, Madison, quently (31, 48). Although neutralization activity has been Wis.). Recombinant proteins (recp40, recp23, and recp18) were expressed in found in sera of animals infected with BDV (12, 22, 31, 32), Escherichia coli and purified according to the manufacturer’s protocol (Nova- the antibodies responsible for neutralization activity have not gen). Purity and antigenicity were assessed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacryl- amide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and Western blot (immunoblot) analysis been investigated. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with sera from infected rats. Native, glycosylated gp18 was prepared from in- (ELISA) based on recombinant BDV proteins has been estab- fected rat brain as described previously (49). lished (6) that provides a sensitive method for detection of ELISA. ELISA was performed as described in reference 6. Briefly, plates antibodies to gp18. We find that the appearance of neutralizing coated with recombinant protein were incubated with serially diluted sera or antibodies in infected rats correlates with immunological reac- MAbs. Bound horseradish peroxidase (HRPO)-coupled secondary antibody [goat anti-mouse F(ab9)-HRPO, goat anti-rat immunoglobulin G (IgG), and tivity to gp18. Furthermore, monospecific and monoclonal an- IgM-HRPO; Sigma] was quantified on a microplate reader (Thermo max; Mo- tibodies (MAbs) directed against gp18 neutralize BDV infec- lecular Devices, Menlo Park, Calif.) by using the chromagen 3,39-5,59-tetrameth- tivity and immunoprecipitate viral particles or subparticles. ylbenzidine (Sigma). The ELISA end point titer was defined as the serum or antibody dilution that generated an optical density of 0.3. SDS-PAGE, Western blot and immunoprecipitation (IP). Recombinant or MATERIALS AND METHODS native BDV proteins were subjected to SDS-PAGE (27) and transferred to nitrocellulose (Schleicher & Schuell, Inc., Keene, N.H.) or Immobilon-N mem- BDV-infected animals. Sixty-thousand focus-forming units (FFU) of BDV branes (Millipore Corp., Bedford, Mass.) (59). Membranes were blocked and He/80-1 (8, 20, 50) was used to intranasally (i.n.) infect each of 70 6-week-old incubated with primary antibody as described by Briese et al. (6). After incuba- Lewis rats. Rats were observed at 3-day intervals for weight loss, ruffled fur, or tion with secondary antibody (goat anti-mouse IgG-alkaline phosphatase, goat postural abnormalities consistent with acute disease. Sera were collected at the anti-rat IgG-alkaline phosphatase, or goat anti-rat IgG and IgM-HRPO [Sig- time of sacrifice. Under metofane anesthesia, rats were perfused with buffered ma]), immune complexes were visualized with Western Blue (Promega Madison, 4% paraformaldehyde; brains were fixed overnight in perfusate at 48C. Twenty- Wis.) for alkaline phosphatase or chemiluminescence (ECL kit; Amersham, micron sagittal sections were collected onto gelatin-coated slides and stained Arlington Heights, Ill.) for HRPO according to the manufacturer’s instructions. with hematoxylin and eosin. Inflammation was scored by using the scale of Stitz, gp18 and recp18 were precipitated by using sera from infected rats, monospecific Sobbe, and Bilzer (54). antibodies, or MAbs and protein A-Sepharose (Pharmacia Biotech Inc., Piscat- away, N.J.) as described by Persson et al. (45) and then were assayed by Western blot. MAbs. MAbs to gp18 were generated according to the method of Thiedemann * Corresponding author. Phone: (714) 824-6193. Fax: (714) 824- et al. (57). Briefly, BALB/c mice were immunized intraperitoneally with 5 mgof 2132. Electronic mail address: [email protected]. gp18 in complete Freund’s adjuvant. Three and 6 weeks after the initial immu- 741 DOWNLOADED FROM 742 HATALSKI ET AL. J. VIROL. nization, mice were given intraperitoneal booster immunizations with 5 mgof gp18 in incomplete Freund’s adjuvant. Four days before fusion of spleen cells with cells from the mouse myeloma cell line X63-Ag8.653 (24), mice were given an intravenous booster immunization with 15 mg of gp18. All hybridomas were initially screened for reactivity to gp18 by ELISA. Tissue culture supernatants from positive hybridomas were concentrated by ammonium sulfate precipitation (23) and tested by Western blot and IP for reactivity with gp18 and recp18. The Ig isotype was determined with an agglutination isotyping kit (Serotec, Oxford, England) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. MAb 24/36F1, directed against BDV-p23 (57), was used as a negative control in Western blot and IP jvi.ASM.ORG - experiments. Generation of polyclonal sera against the 18-kDa protein. To produce anti- bodies against recp18, two 2-month-old Lewis rats were injected subcutaneously with 25 mg of protein in Freund’s complete adjuvant and were given booster injections 3 weeks later with 25 mg of protein subcutaneously in Freund’s incom- plete adjuvant. After 6 weeks, animals received intraperitoneal injections of 25 mg of protein in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) with 20 mg of lipopolysaccha- at COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY July 22, 2010 ride (Salmonella typhimurium; Difco, Detroit, Mich.) at 2-week intervals for a total of three injections. Serum was collected every 2 weeks during weeks 7 through 14 for analysis by ELISA and Western blot and for determination of NT.