Antigenic and immunogenic properties of defined physical forms of tick-borne encephalitis virus structural proteins.

Polymeric, delipidated glycoprotein complexes of defined size and composition were prepared from tick-borne encephalitis virus by solubilization with Triton X-100 or cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, followed by centrifugation into detergent-free sucrose density gradients. The antigenic reactivities and immunogenicities of these complexes were compared with those of complete inactivated virus. These glycoprotein preparations induced hemagglutination-inhibiting and neutralizing antibodies which proved to be protective in passive mouse protection tests and monospecifically reacted only with the viral envelope and not with the internal core. In a competitive radioimmunoassay the glycoprotein complexes revealed about 10-fold higher antigenicity than whole virus when tested at equal protein concentrations. The important implications of these results with respect to antigen quantification in vaccines are discussed. As shown in the mouse challenge potency test, glycoprotein complexes prepared after Triton X-100 solubilization actively protected mice almost as well as did complete inactivated virus at the same protein concentration, whereas those prepared after cetyltrimethylammonium bromide solubilization had a somewhat lower protective activity per microgram of protein.