Proteins of Human Cytomegalovirus that Elicit Humoral Immunity

Several of the cytomegalovirus (CMV) genes encoding glycoproteins, structural proteins, and infected-cell proteins that elicit an immune response in human infection have been mapped. Human sera and monoclonal antibodies react with these viral polypeptides made as native molecules in CMV-infected cells, as genetically engineered proteins, as truncated derivatives expressed in eukaryotic cells, and as bacterial fusion proteins from portions of the reading frames cloned into prokaryotic expression vectors. Synthetic oligopeptides from immunodominant regions of these molecules have also been used as antibody targets. Studies on proteins encoded by reading frames UL55, UL32, and UL44, on glycopr…