Varicella-zoster virus-specific gp140: a highly immunogenic and disulfide-linked structural glycoprotein.

A 140,000-dalton disulfide-linked glycoprotein (gp140) specified by varicella-zoster virus (VZV) in infected cultured cells was identified and precipitated by two murine monoclonal antibodies (VZ-151 and VZ-158). When analyzed under reducing conditions by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, gp140 was cleaved predominantly into a 66,000 lower-molecular-weight product (gp66). This protein was classified as a viral structural component, since it was observed in the polypeptide profile of metrizamide gradient-purified enveloped virions. By immunofluorescence analyses with a monoclonal antibody probe, gp140 expression was documented to be highly conserved both within cultured cells inoculated with homologous (VZV-Oka) and heterologous (VZV-32) strains and in infected human tissues from chicken pox and zoster patients. That the glycoprotein was highly immunogenic was confirmed by the presence of high-titer anti-gp140 antibody in the sera of both hyperimmunized laboratory animals and naturally infected humans. Temporally, the humoral response to gp140 following primary VZV infection preceded that against the other viral glycoproteins. These studies describe, therefore, an immunogenic, disulfide-linked viral structural glycoprotein, which must be included among the other five previously described VZV-specific fucosylated species--gp118, gp98, gp62, and gp45.