id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentences	flesch	summary	cache	txt
cord-285900-3rr0j5tk	Du, Lanying	Introduction of neutralizing immunogenicity index to the rational design of MERS coronavirus subunit vaccines	2016-11-22		.txt	text/plain	6456	321	49	To investigate why masking a negative epitope led to enhanced neutralizing immunogenicity of the MERS-CoV RBD vaccine, we performed a competition assay between neutralizing mAbs and mutant-RBD-induced mouse serum for the binding of wild type MERS-CoV RBD. Using the MERS-CoV RBD as a model, we singly mask selected epitopes using host-derived glycan probes, and then measure the corresponding changes in the vaccine's overall neutralizing immunogenicity. To apply the NII strategy to vaccine design, we successfully enhanced the efficacy of the MERS-CoV RBD vaccine in virus challenge studies by masking its strong negative epitope (that is, the epitope containing Thr579, with an NII of À 3.0) with a glycan probe. Third, our study demonstrates that masking an immunodominant non-neutralizing epitope with a negative NII value on the surface of the MERS-CoV RBD core structure can shift host immune responses towards the neutralizing epitopes in the RBM region, providing means to overcome the limitation of viral subunit vaccines from vaccine design.	./cache/cord-285900-3rr0j5tk.txt	./txt/cord-285900-3rr0j5tk.txt