Controlled organization of multimolecular complexes of enveloped virus glycoproteins: study of immunogenicity

Some technological and immunological problems facing the preparation of subunit viral vaccines are discussed. Solubilization of enveloped virus glycoproteins with various detergents has been studied. It has been demonstrated that a novel non-ionic detergent, MESK, can be used to prepare the glycoproteins of enveloped viruses in defined supramolecular forms: monomers, micelles, liposomes and multimeric complexes. These preparations have been tested for immunogenicity. It has been shown that the immunogenicity of glycoproteins in micellar form or in liposomes is comparable with that of the whole virus. The immunogenicity of the glycoprotein complex with the glycoside Quil A appeared to be significantly higher in comparison with the whole virus and was similar to the immunogenicity of glycoproteins mixed with Freund's complete adjuvant.