Structure of the measles virus H glycoprotein sheds light on an efficient vaccine
- Rob W. H. Ruigrok* and
- Denis Gerlier†,‡
- *Unit of Virus Host Cell Interactions, Unité Mixte de Recherche 5233, Université Joseph Fourier–European Molecular Biology Laboratory–Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 6 Rue Jules Horowitz, B.P. 181, 38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France; and
- †Virologie et Pathologie Humaine, Formation de Recherche en Évolution 3011, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, and Institut Fédératif de Recherche 62 Laennec, Université de Lyon 1, 69372 Lyon Cedex 08, France
Prevention by vaccination is the most efficient and economical way of fighting viral disease, as exemplified by the successful eradication of smallpox in the late 1980s. In the 1960s, many attenuated vaccines were developed, and such vaccines are among the most efficient for preventing human (such as smallpox and measles) and animal disease. Attenuated vaccines have been empirically obtained by growing viruses in various cell types, including cells from species that are not naturally infected. However, development of successful vaccines against many other enveloped viruses has found limited success (influenza) or still awaits convincing proof of concept (HIV). Both influenza and HIV escape neutralizing immunity by mutating the coding regions of their envelope glycoproteins to escape from recognition by neutralizing antibodies. The underlying molecular mechanism, i.e., why measles virus behaves monotypically from the point of view of the immune response, has now been elucidated with the crystal structure of the viral H glycoprotein (1).
The Immunosuppressive Measles Virus and Animal Morbilliviruses Use CD150 as a Receptor
Measles remains a leading cause of death for young children (345,000 deaths in 2005 among an estimated 30 million people infected; data available at www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs286/en). Measles is one of the most contagious respiratory diseases known. It is caused by an RNA virus from the Morbillivirus genus. This genus also houses several animal pathogens severely affecting cattle and/or wild animals: canine distemper virus (CDV), rinderpest virus (RPV), peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV), cetacean morbillivirus, and phocine distemper virus. Morbilliviruses share many structural and biological properties. The diseases that they induce are characterized by a severe, but fortunately transient, cellular immunodepression that, in the case of measles, can be biologically as severe as what is observed in patients suffering from AIDS. This immunodepression is linked to the use of the CD150 (or SLAM) receptor, which is expressed only on activated cells of the immune system. The …
‡To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: denis.gerlier{at}univ-lyon1.fr
