A Heat-Induced Mutation on VP1 of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Serotype O Enhanced Capsid Stability and Immunogenicity
Hu Dong, Yuanlu Lu, Yun Zhang, Yun Zhang, Suyu Mu, Nan Wang, Ping Du, Xiaoying Zhi, Xiaobo Wen, Xiangxi Wang, Shiqi Sun, Yanming Zhang, Yanming Zhang, Huichen Guo
Abstract
Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) serotype O is one of the global epidemic serotypes and causes significant economic loss. Vaccination plays a key role in the prevention and control of FMD. However, the success of vaccination mainly depends on the quality of the vaccine. Here, the thermostable FMD virus (FMDV) mutants (M3 and M10) were selected through thermal screening at high temperatures with improved stability and immunogenicity compared with the wild-type virus. The results of multisequence alignment and cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) analysis showed that the Thr substitution at the 13th amino acid in the VP1 protein is critical for the capsid stability of FMDV. For thermolabile type O FMDV, this major discovery will aid the development of its thermostable vaccine.