Humoral immune response to human cytomegalovirus proteins: a brief review

Abstract

Although human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) has a genome of 150 x 10(6) Da, and a protein-coding content of over 200 open reading frames, few viral proteins seem able to elicit a strong antibody response in the natural host during viral infection. The immunodominant polypeptides include a component of 72 kDa among immediate early proteins, a polypeptide of 52 kDa among delayed early proteins and a glycoprotein complex of 58 and 93-130 kDa and two phosphoproteins of mol. wt 150 and 65 kDa among the structural proteins. Following a general overview of the humoral immune response, this brief survey mainly deals with the antibody response to these proteins. As significant epitopes of the major HCMV immunogenic polypeptides have been expressed in procaryotic cells over the last few years, an overview of the state of the art in this particular field will also be given.