Nuclear radiation environment analysis for thermoelectric outer planet spacecraft

Neutron and gamma ray transport calculations were performed using Monte Carlo methods and a three-dimensional geometric model of the spacecraft. The results are compared with similar calculations performed for an earlier design

Antigenic variants of rabies virus

Antigenic variants of CVS-11 strain of rabies virus were selected after treatment of virus populations with monoclonal antibodies directed against the glycoprotein antigen of the virus. These variants resisted neutralization by the hybridoma antibody used for their selection. Two independently mutating antigenic sites could be distinguished when five variants were tested with nine hybridoma antibodies. The frequency of single epitope variants in a cloned rabies virus seed was approximately 1:10,000. Animals were not or only partially protected when challenged with the parent virus or with another variant, but were fully protected against challenge with the virus used for immunization. Variants were also detected among seven street viruses obtained from fatal cases of human rabies. Animals immunized with standard rabies vaccine were protected against challenge with some but not all street rabies variants. A comparative antigenic analysis between vaccine strain and challenge virus by means of monoclonal antiglycoprotein antibodies showed a slightly closer degree of antigenic relatedness between vaccine and challenge strain in the combinations where vaccination resulted in protection. It remains unknown, however, whether these apparently minor antigenic differences in the glycoproteins account for the varying degrees of protection. The results of this study clearly indicate that the selection of vaccine strains and the methods used to evaluate the potency of rabies vaccines need to be revised

Clonal analysis of a human antibody response. Quantitation of precursors of antibody-producing cells and generation and characterization of monoclonal IgM, IgG, and IgA to rabies virus.

We quantitated and characterized the changes in the human B cell repertoire, at the clonal level, before and after immunization with rabies virus. Moreover, we generated 10 monoclonal cell lines producing IgM, IgG, and IgA antibodies to the virus. We found that in healthy subjects, not previously exposed to the virus, nearly 2% of the circulating B lymphocytes were committed to the production of antibodies that bound the virus. These B cells expressed the surface CD5 molecule. The antibodies they produced were polyreactive IgM that displayed a relatively low affinity for the virus components (Kd, 1.0-2.4 x 10(-6) g/microliters). After immunization, different anti-virus (IgG and IgA) antibody-producing cells consistently appeared in the circulation and increased from less than 0.005% to greater than 10% of the total B cells committed to the production of IgG and IgA, respectively. Most of such B cells do not express CD5 and produce monoreactive antibodies of high affinity for rabies virus (Kd, 6.5 x 10(-9) to 1.2 x 10(-10) g/microliters). One of these IgG mAbs efficiently neutralized rabies virus in vitro and in vivo, as detailed elsewhere (Dietzschold, B., P. Casali, Y. Ueki, M. Gore, C. E. Rupprecht, A. L. Notkins, and H. Koprowski, manuscript submitted for publication). Hybridization experiments using probes specific for the different human V gene segment families revealed that cell precursors producing low affinity IgM binding to rabies virus utilized a restricted number of VH gene segments (i.e., only members of the VHIIIb subfamily), whereas cell precursors producing high affinity IgG and IgA to rabies virus utilized an assortment of different VH gene segments (i.e., members of the VHI, VHIII, VHIV, and VHVI families and VHIIIb subfamily). In conclusion, our studies show that EBV transformation in conjunction with limiting dilution technology and somatic cell hybridization techniques are useful methods for quantitating, at the B cell clonal level, the human antibody response to foreign Ags and for generating human mAbs of predetermined specificity and high affinity

The Specificity of Rabies Virus RNA Encapsidation by Nucleoprotein

AbstractRabies virus nucleoprotein (N) encapsidates negative-strand genomic RNAin vivo,and this RNA–N complex, together with the nominal viral phosphoprotein (P) and RNA polymerase (L), forms the active cytoplasmic ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex in virus-infected cells and the RNP core in virus particles. The RNP complex is capable of initiating viral RNA transcription and replicationin vivoandin vitro.To obtain insight into the events leading to the formation of the RNA–N complex, we have investigated the interaction between rabies virus N and the positive-strand leader RNA transcript. Binding studies revealed that recombinant N binds preferentially to rabies virus leader RNA and that N binding to leader RNA was 5 to 10 times stronger than to nonleader RNA. Encapsidation of leader RNA by N could be competetively inhibited by unlabeled leader RNA but not by nonleader RNA. Furthermore, N protein encapsidation of nonleader RNA but not the leader RNA was inhibited when P was simultaneously added into the encapsidation reaction, indicating that P helps confer the specificity of leader RNA encapsidation by N. The initiation signal for leader RNA encapsidation by N has been mapped to nucleotides 20–30 of the RNA sequence which is A rich. Studies with N-deletion mutants indicate that the intact N is required to encapsidate RNA, since deletion of amino acid residues from either the N- or the C-terminus of N abolishes the ability of N to encapsidate leader RNA