The Recombinant NS3 Protein a Potential Antigen for Dengue Vaccine Development

The NS3 protein is a multifunctional non-structural protein involved in dengue virus polyprotein processing. This protein is also target in the immune response against dengue virus infection. The predominance of cytotoxic T-cell lymphocytes epitopes in the NS3 structure suggests the participation of this protein in limiting virus replication and in the protection against dengue disease. A brief presentation on aspects related to antigenic characteristics and immunogenicity of the recombinant NS3 protein is reported in this work. A reduced number of studies have assessed the NS3 protein in a dengue vaccine formulation. Researches carried out in mice shown that DNA vaccines based on NS3 protein induced a protective response evaluated by their ability to produce IFNγ. Moreover, the incorporation of recombinant subunit NS3 in a purified inactivated vaccine significantly increased the immune response induced by this inactivated vaccine. Likewise, recent studies demonstrated that the combination of the recombinant modified-NS1 and NS3 proteins from dengue 2 virus induced higher immune responses and protection in mice. The immunological studies discussed herein support the possible inclusion of the NS3 protein in a dengue vaccine formulation.