{"doi":"10.3390/vaccines12101115","title":"Enhanced Expression of the L1R Gene of Vaccinia Virus by the tPA Signal Sequence Inserted in a Fowlpox-Based Recombinant Vaccine","abstract":"The use of Vaccinia virus (VACV) as a preventive vaccine against variola, the etiological agent of smallpox, led to the eradication of smallpox as a human disease. The L1 protein, a myristylated transmembrane protein present on the surface of mature virions, plays a significant role in infection and morphogenesis, is well-conserved in all orthopoxviruses, and is the target of neutralizing antibodies. DNA recombinant vaccines expressing this protein were successfully used, but they showed lower efficacy in non-human and human primates when used alone, and viral-vectored fowlpox vaccines were already proved to increase immunogenicity when used as a boost. Here, we constructed a novel fowlpox-based recombinant (FPtPA-L1R), in which the tissue plasminogen activator signal sequence was linked to the 5′ end of the L1R gene to drive the L1 protein into the cellular secretion pathway. FPtPA-L1R expresses a functional heterologous protein that can be immunoprecipitated by hyperimmune rabbit serum. The protein shows cytoplasmic and membrane subcellular localizations and long-lasting expression in CEF, non-human primate Vero and human MRC-5 cells. The tissue plasminogen activator signal sequence can thus contribute significantly to the expression of the L1 protein and may enhance the immunogenicity of a putative DNA/FP prime–boost vaccine.","journal":"Vaccines","year":2024,"id":483753,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9544,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":728767,"name":"Carlo Zanotto","orcid":"0000-0003-0222-6102","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1291101,"name":"C.I. Brambilla","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1324769,"name":"T.M. Adami","orcid":"0009-0006-5423-0751","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1080964,"name":"Carlo De Giuli Morghen","orcid":"0000-0002-4127-3596","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":728769,"name":"Antonia Radaelli","orcid":"0000-0002-5683-6216","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":36,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:07:33.718973Z","pmid":"39460282","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}